His name is Willie. She said the water was glassy. He was 84 years of age when he passed away. His birthday is October 24, 1917.
There was a bad storm in Alabama (where they lived) about 10 years ago and everyone had evacuated the area except my grandfather and grandmother--the only one's left in the neighborhood--because my grandfather refused to leave "the house that he built" and he was so proud of as he raised 6 children (3 girls and 3 boys--The Waltons--was their last name). His son (my uncle Raymond) attempted to swim back to get them before the water rose, but he drowned in the process. (He was a very good swimmer, but we think a branch or something must have hit him because he had a gash in his head when he surfaced in the water). So the search and rescue team had to take the boat to go and get them out which they did. During the 48 hour search to look for my uncle (and my grandfather was also out in the storm along with everyone else looking for him) and my uncle Raymond just surfaced right in front of my grandfather at his feet, at the beginning of the small bridge where the search started. Til the day he died, he blamed himself. My grandfather died from Alzheimer's, but he was a fighter with the disease until the end !!. He was also a WWII veteran, hair was totally white--he was born with 6 teeth. He was 6'3" tall and very muscular. He was very well liked by everyone in the whole town and he was well known throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia (just to name a few places), and he was very well loved by everyone!
Sorry to go into that detail, but I was so proud of my grandfather and the morals and values that he instilled in his children and grandchildren, family and friends...