By DEBBIE ROSEN
With so much left to offer this world, Natalie was crushed to death by a stampede of elephants while on safari in Africa. She was there as a member of the Peace Corps. There to make a difference.
But Natalie had already made a difference in other peoples lives. People like her best friend, Adrienne Asterita, who met her at Camp DeBaun in Oceanside when the two were just 8 years old.
I was sitting by the monkey bars all by myself crying, said Adrienne, recalling one day at camp when kids were just being kids and picking on her. Dont worry about them. Come on, you want to go play? she said of the girl she met that day and the one who would become her best friend. But that was Natalie. Although people made fun of her because she was adopted, she never was angry with them or took it to heart. Ive always admired her for that, Adrienne said.
Natalie spent every summer of her childhood as a happy camper at Camp DeBaun, going on to be a shining member of the staff from 1991-94. The DeBaun family remembered her well, as a fine young lady. She was a very enthusiastic counselor who always received glowing recommendations, Annette DeBaun said. Not only was Natalie an all-around terrific girl, but comes from a lovely family.
Her dad, Paul, grew up in Oceanside and moved to Huntington after Natalie graduated Oceanside High. In a phone conversation, he shared precious memories of the life he spent with his daughter.
I remember her school prom, her high school graduation, and all those chorus concerts, Waldinger said. She loved to go to Dr. Perriwinkles and spent every summer at Camp DeBaun, a place that played a major role in her life, he added. In fact, I truly want to set up a fund in her name, so I can send a child to camp there every summer, he said.
Waldinger said he raised the daughter he adopted from Bolivia, and son Frank, in Oceanside because he wanted to give his children the best education he could afford. Natalie attended Boardman Elementary School, where she and Adrienne became inseparable. When moving on to Oceanside Middle School, she met her other best friend, Suzanne Altschul. During her high school years, Natalie enjoyed studying science, math, chorus and model congress. She applied to and was accepted by the University of Michigan, where she studied aerospace engineering. After graduation Natalie wanted to do something to make a difference in the world and applied to the Peace Corps.
She requested to be placed where she was born, Bolivia, interested in helping the people there while learning about her heritage. She was told there were no current openings in Bolivia, so when there was availability for her in Africa, Natalie jumped at the chance. Some 19 months ago, she left Long Island to become a physics and math teacher for secondary children in the Tanzania capital city of Donna. And while she and her dad had words over her joining the Peace Corps, Natalie wouldnt have gone without talking to her father first. He was her confidant. But off she went, to make the world a better place. Yet a few weeks ago, Natalie asked her dad to finance a safari she wanted to take with a college friend who came to visit. Days later, Waldinger received a call revealing the tragic fate of his altruistic daughter.
Through the course of her life, Natalie was known to be a kind-hearted person, always looking out for someone else. Her move to join the Peace Corps came as no surprise to the two Oceanside High School teachers she admired most.
For 39 years, Marty Rudolph has been teaching math at Oceanside High, but he recalled one special person. Natalie was a very motivated student who struck me as being extremely compassionate, Rudolph said. Her destiny was to help the world, so it doesnt surprise me that she joined the Peace Corps. Losing her is a tragedy, and when I heard the news, it sent chills up my spine.
In 1996, Donald Hammer retired after teaching chemistry at Oceanside High for 35 years. He remembered Natalie, having taught both her and her dad. She was a strong student, but more so, I remember she was a sensitive person, helpful and kind. Its so hard to understand why bad things happen to good people, he said.
Natalies Uncle Bill Waldinger, an Oceanside resident since 1950, shared some childhood memories of his niece. Natalie was a very happy child, always a smile on her face, he said. The family spent all holidays together, Natalie and his sons James, Gary and Keith playing board games and teasing one another. He remembered her most for her sense of independence in going to Africa to pursue a dream.
Her uncle Ray said she inherited her spirit of adventure and had a smile no one could ever forget. Her mom, Carol, had backpacked her way through Europe and I saw Natalie had that same spirit, he said. [Natalies mother passed away when Natalie was just 5 years old.] And what a smile she had, one that went from ear to ear.
Natalie Waldinger will be missed by many, but there is a distinct void in the lives of her two best friends from Oceanside. In fact, Adrienne and Suzanne speak daily, comforting one another. Most of all, they talk about their best friend. Natalie and me and Adrienne did everything together, said Suzanne. I remember how much she liked cheese doodles, you know the really puffy ones, and Coca Cola, drinking a can for breakfast. We used to go over to her house every day after high school because she lived on Waukena right around the corner from school.
Adrienne and Natalie often communicated by letters and on the computer. Just two days before she died I went on the computer and there she was, said Adrienne. After we talked for a few minutes I had to get off quickly. I never thought it would be the last time I would speak with her.
Natalie planned for the future, when she would return to Long Island in December 2001. Her ultimate goal was to attend Columbia University to obtain a law degree, her dad said. With that degree, she wanted to work for the U.S. State Department in the field of human resources.
