Nathans Story..

Nathan Walker, age 31, of Cottage Grove, WI, passed away on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022. He was born on Aug. 10, 1991, in Winfield, IL, the son of Robert and Cathy (Noble) Walker.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022, fire fighter Nate Walker tragically lost his battle with PTSD. Nate was a dedicated husband, father, firefighter, former police officer and U.S. Marine Corps Veteran. Nate leaves behind his wife, Kathryn (Katie) and their two young children.

Nathan graduated from DeForest High School in 2009. While in high school, he served in the Civil Air Patrol and as an intern at the DeForest Police Department. Immediately upon graduation, Nate joined the U.S. Marine Corps.  During his time in the Marine Corps, Nate was stationed in Afghanistan. Upon returning home, he served with the Wisconsin Capital Police and several years as an officer with the Sun Prairie Police Department where he and Katie first met. (As Katie tells it, he was that crazy cop who kept running into burning buildings before Katie and the fire department arrived.) He married Katie Berggren on Oct. 17, 2020.

At the time of his passing, Nate was a member of the Cottage Grove (WI) Fire Department along with Katie, who remains an active firefighter and paramedic. Nate never shied away from his own struggles with PTSD and often used his past experiences to connect with others to help them through their struggles. Sadly, it is often the ones helping who struggle the most.

Although Nate’s battle has come to an end, we know that his wish has always been for others to overcome theirs. If you or anyone you know is suffering from PTSD, suicidal thoughts, or any other mental health issues, call or text 988 for help!

Nathan enjoyed painting miniature military pieces, target practice, working out, hiking, escape rooms, trying random restaurants, helping others, serving his country and community and, most importantly, spending time with his wife and children.

Nathan is survived by his wife, Katie; their son, Calvin Walker (age 2); their daughter, Charlotte Walker (age 1); his parents, Robert and Cathy Walker; his sister, Elise (Jonathan) NaThalang; his grandparents, Jack and Helen Noble; parents-in-law, Grant and Patricia Berggren; sisters-in-law, Nichole (Michael) Flores, Natalie (Greg) Stelzer and Karissa (Vincent) Johnson; brothers-in-law, Joseph Berggren and Jacob Berggren; nieces, Alexa Flores, Isla Stelzer and Naomi Johnson; nephews, Donovan Flores, Dominic Flores and Elijah Johnson; as well as many other family members and friends who loved and respected him.

Nathan Allen Walker (also known as “bunny”) through my eyes:

One of the biggest, bravest, initially intimidating, yet most compassionate of souls. Nathan and I stumbled upon each other one evening when he happened to stay late at work which resulted in him being assigned to a call slightly out of his district (he was a police officer at the time.) This call happened to be a fire incident where I was also assigned to the call (I worked in the same city at the time as a FireFighter.) I stumbled upon this tall, handsome man and couldn’t take my eyes off him. Our story of how we met is long but worth the share, which will happen in due time. As for now the story I will share is that when we met, we both arrived from difficult times in life. Both him and I had an extensive closet of baggage with us, and heavy loads on our shoulders. We connected and shared our pasts and struggles in life, and for the first times of both our lives we were able to share some of our load. We carried each other. We shared most of our waking hours together, almost every spare second we had. For the only time in my life could I confidently agree that all the damage, heart break, and traumatic events of life were absolutely worth it. Because each part, the good and even the bad led us directly to each other. Our love grew along with the hundreds of inside jokes and impromptu date nights. We learned each other inside and out. We taught each other many things in life. I taught him that being a firefighter is cooler than being a cop ;). And he taught me how to slow dance, turns out you can slow dance at any point of the night or day. And a great way to put a pause and reset during an argument is to call for a dance. The rule was, no talking, argument pauses and you must dance for the whole song – our song being, the night we met- when the song ends if you still feel like arguing it may continue. I will say it worked one hundred percent of the time. It was some sort of voodoo he had over me, that I miss dearly. Thousands of memories, dad jokes and conversations later, I felt I got to know him down to the bones. One of our biggest past times since even our first date, was a game we would frequently play. It was called “Tell me something..” When your partner says the key words, tell me something I don’t know about you. We would have to rack our brains to come up with something new, a fact or a story or even an embarrassing flaw that you could share. The other could not say theirs until the first person shared something new. We tried to learn something new about each other each and every day. Even with this being said. MY NATE, is still the same Nate everyone else knew, but to different depths of him. His friends saw a different aspect and depth to him that I may have never been able to see, along with his family, and coworkers. I don’t like to use the term “a different version” because in my eyes there is not more that one version of a person, just different depths, walls and stages in life.

Therefore creating this book would allow his family to see a few beams of light of the depths I saw Nate in. I would be able to see the parts of Nates soul that his family or friends saw. We could give each other these memories and share them all in an easy way and a memorable way, that we can keep with us forever, even when our brains start to fail. We will have something to kickstart and reignite those memories.

Some of photos of Nathan that capture pieces of his spirit, and begin to tell his story..

A Short; Our version of “Hunting”

Nate and I would go “hunting” every hunting season, when we made a tradition we stuck with it. We inherently made an unspoken “hunting” tradition based off the first time we ever went hunting together. The first day we went hunting, we did it wrong, we loaded up on donuts and junk food before setting out, and not enough caffeine. With our crazy work hours and lack of liquid stimulants, and a treacherous hike we succumbed to the un escapable outcome.. we fell asleep. The hike out to our spot was brutal, I was three months pregnant at the time and I read the map wrong and Nathan was kind and tried to let me navigate.. big mistake.. I should have literally let the Marine Corps sniper navigate us, but no. I just had to show him how smart I was. This lead to me winding us up in thickets and thorn bushes and hiking all over the place just to get to a destination that could have been a straight 800yard walk from our vehicle. Needless to say we succumb to the inevitable and fell asleep almost instantaneously once we sat down. You probably guessed it, we weren’t “successful” that day in procuring any meat. However without any words or agreements spoken we created a tradition that was some of the best moments we got to share. Every morning of hunting season we would get a baby sitter and load up on junk food, stuff our pockets full, and set off deep into the woods. The destination was irrelevant. We would find a spot that looked within our comfort level (not in the thickets), and settle in before sunrise. Nate would lay down a blanket on the cold Wisconsin ground (sometimes even in a bush), he would set his rifle next to him (mainly for show at this point so people don’t get suspicious we actually are fraud hunters but pro-nappers) and he would lay down. I would either lay next to him or when the November air was really biting, I would lay on top of him. We would lay there share some junk food and good stories until we would drift off to sleep. In the midst of the woods out in the open, laying right next to my person the world would stand still and peace was all I could feel. Eventually when the sun rose we would wake up and share some more stories with our “tell me something” game. While taking the occasional glance to whatever clearing or field we happened to stop at that morning, if we happened to see anything we were extremely ill prepared and yet that meant nothing to us.We never fully set out to ever “hunt” anything but we went out each morning to be able to fall asleep together in the middle of nowhere, with nothing by the wind and the woods surrounding us. I can still picture me waking up and him being asleep, the sun just barely rising. When I close my eyes I am back there again propped up with my head on his chest, as I heard his heart beating and his loud snore that drove the deer away and yet now I can’t sleep without. That moment in life everything was good, I was good. A handful of times he would just hold me while I slept, I would awake and see the look on his face of pure bliss just being present, being still, when nothing else mattered but being there, together. -KW

Your tribute

Your legacy does not fail, as it only grows stronger. I promise till my last breath to tell your story and always speak your name. For the many things you taught me in life, one of the greatest of those was to face the adversity head on. To love even when we feel we have nothing left to give. Even when I feel lost, I am grounded by the love we have. Not a day goes by I do not miss you. Yet, I hold near to me, knowing. I got to love you.

“The sorrow we feel when we lose a loved one is the price we pay to have had them in our lives.” – Rob Liano

“Those we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch.” – Jack Thorne