Continued: Dodge Center gathers to remember two lives

KASSON, MINN.

Twelve-year-old Ismael Nicholas Bugarin was eulogized Friday as a brave and loving boy who laid down his life to save his two little sisters.

Known as Nick, the Dodge Center boy died of stab wounds last Saturday, minutes after he fought with his father, who, according to criminal charges, had just slain his mother, Teresa Bugarin, 27, in their mobile home and then had gone after Nick's younger sisters with a knife, cutting them.

Nick, in a struggle in which his throat was slashed, wrested away the knife, giving the little girls time to run to the neighboring home of the Ramirez family, where Nick's best friend, Patrick, lived. Nick, who managed to stab his father twice in the back, then ran to the Ramirez home, where he died.

The lives of Nick and Teresa Bugarin, known as Terry, were celebrated at Holy Family Catholic Church in Kasson, Minn., where nearly 700 mourners turned out for their funeral.

The father, Ismael Bugarin, 33, remained hospitalized under guard.

Relatives on both sides of the family gathered before the mass, each person kissing the foreheads of mother and son in their wooden caskets as a final blessing.

For Nick's two sisters, Jasmine, 8, and Sabrina, 6, the closing of the caskets -- their last view of their brother and mom -- was unbearable.

"Tengo miedo!" they cried over and over. It means "I'm scared!" in Spanish.

Teresa Bugarin's sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth and Flavio Olmos, of Byron, Minn., gathered up the girls in their arms and consoled them. The couple will adopt the girls, Elizabeth Olmos said later.

The funeral had been moved to Holy Family because the Bugarin family's church in Dodge Center was not big enough to hold all the mourners, who also turned out by the hundreds for the visitation Thursday night.

"Terry was always giving of herself," whether it was to throw a shower or a party or to do something kind for others, said Rev. Kurt Farrell of the family's church in Dodge Center, St. John Baptist de la Salle Catholic Church.

Terry Bugarin was a hairdresser who, two days before her death, had gone to the home of a fellow parishioner, who has cancer, and dyed the woman's hair for a wedding. Terry Bugarin was going to be matron of honor, Farrell said.

But she never made it to the wedding, the priest said. And though all others knew what had happened, they kept the tragedy, which played out on the eve of the wedding, from the bride so she could enjoy her wedding.

"So we celebrated that wedding as if we were at a funeral, crying, with a lot of sadness in our hearts," the priest said. "We come here today to celebrate this funeral as if it were a wedding, because our belief tells us that this is not the end," he said.

Nick was remembered as a fun-loving, witty and strong boy who loved video games, skateboarding, sports and, the priest said, his dad. Nick was always ready to hug a cousin, make a friend laugh, jump into the spotlight and defend others, said kids who knew him. 

 "When it came to it, he was willing to lay down his own life, sacrifice his own life ... so that his sisters could live," Farrell said.

Among many who eulogized Nick and his mom Friday were young Patrick Ramirez and two other good friends who attended Triton Middle School in West Concord, Minn., with Nick. They were accompanied to the front of the church by their principal, Craig Schlichting, who described Nick as a boy with too many friends to count, a role model who studied  hard.

One of Nick's teachers, Lori Mack, read a poem written by staff at the middle school. Called "Sparkler," it described a funny and good boy who radiated "pure light."

The poem described Nick as being "like a shooting star across the sky, gone too fast. A flash of light leaving a trail of brilliance and wonder. But the neat thing is," the teacher read, "Nick's light was a trail of sparks, sparks that will glisten and shine within us for a long, long time."

Joy Powell • 952-882-9017