BOTHELL, Wash. - A Marine from Bothell died Tuesday while serving in Afghanistan, and now his family wants people to remember the good deeds of those serving overseas.

First Lt. Nicholas Madrazo was killed while supporting combat operations - just four months before he was due to return home from his deployment.

"He always talked about serving his country and being part of the military so he could give back for our freedom," says his sister, Natalie Madrazo.

She always knew her brother, who everyone called "Nick," would be a Marine. So did their mother, Jenny.

"He used to play army men when he was a little boy and dress up his brothers," says Jenny Madrazo.

But one day it wasn't child's play anymore. After graduating from business school in 2005, Nicholas Madrazo went into active duty.

"He was proud to wear that uniform," says his father, Joel Madrazo.

Nicholas Madrazo, 25, served his country with honor, and he took his job as a Marine seriously. When he was deployed to Afghanistan back in March, he saw a chance to make a difference.

"He saw that the kids there didn't have anything; they didn't have pencils of their own," says his mother.

So he called his family and asked them to send school supplies so he could give them to the Afghan children.

Nick's brother, Jared, remembers hearing the stories from his older brother.

"Giving a pen to a kid there is like fixing an Xbox to a kid here," he says.

Recalls his mother, Jenny: "Every time they saw him, the kids would come out yelling 'Nick, Nick, Nick.'"

He called and wrote e-mails to his family.

"Nick wanted to pass on the good things that are happening there," says his father.

The last time they heard from Nick was a week ago. Then they got the news that he had died on Tuesday.

"He died doing what he wanted to do," says his sister Natalie.

And, while the family grieves and tries to cope with what's happened, they want people to remember not how their son died ...
but how he lived.

As his father says: "To us he was more than a soldier, he had a task to do to make the lives of the Afghan people a little better."