Walter Lewis has had some hard times in his life however, he has seen blessings come out of these challenging times, including Hurricane Helene. The flood had brought a foot of mud into part of Walter’s house and almost destroyed his workshop, ruining some of his tools and keeping him from doing what he loves.
SCRIPT:
Walter Lewis – Homeowner
Well, I’ve had a lot of things happen to me along the way. I’ve had a lot of hard times. Sometimes we can’t differentiate between what’s a curse or what’s a blessing. I just look at it like I was blessed and I survived it. My granddad was a woodworker. My dad was. And I was. And my son, he is.
We learned carpentry work as children. I made the first rifle when I was 13, and I’ve been making them ever since. And in 1978, I made the first grandfather clock.
Well, over the course of my lifetime, I made 175 rifles, 195 clocks. 97 grandfather clock. I’ve built many houses. This is a Pennsylvania Bethlehem rifle, and this is a 32 caliber.
It’s got a 42 inch barrel on it. When you get ready to shoot, sparks set off the powder. I’ve always been a firm believer in God. Anytime you take anything of God’s creation and you can transform it into something useful and beneficial, it offers a lot of reward. Me and Margie. We got married in 1994.
Two and a half years ago she developed a condition called frontotemporal dementia. She loses her mental capabilities. I lose her every day. Today will be the best day of her life. Tomorrow will be last. I guess that’s just the way life is.
Hurricane Helene. I mean, it just tore everything up. The water just rose so rapidly. I fixed Margie’s lunch, and I lay down on the bed and was reading for about 45 minutes, and I got up and looked out the window and it was in the middle of a river. It was nearly as high as the front porch at that time.
No way to get out. It was devastating. Margie and I could have both been killed right here. And when you look out, you don’t see nothing but water. And you ain’t got no boat. You’re in a bad place. We came through it and God saved us. The water ponded up this deep. The mud ended up about maybe a foot deep.
Samaritan’s Purse showed up. Truth is, I don’t what I would’ve done without him. They came and cut that sheet rock out and pulled up all the baseboard. Really, really helped me a lot.
Right out here for all the business gets done. I’ve had to table for 45 years, I. They come out here and saved this mess. And this girl said, y’all clean that shop. I said, well, yeah, if you want to. Just in a few minutes there must have been 20 people out here and they come in here and got all this mud out. It was a blessing for them to show up.
I appreciate everything they done. As Samaritan’s Purse has bought that miter saw, and that’s a good miter saw. We’re going to set this place back up. I still can’t believe it there’s organization that’s that good to go out and help people. And here they just showed up. Volunteered to do that. God blesses those that bless others. And I said, you look at what Samaritan’s Purse has done for all this community.
Not just us, but this whole community and this community will rebuild. This community is people that believe in that you you do better. You make things work and, and they’ll make it all work.
Story Provided By:
Samaritan’s Purse
Producing Organization
Samaritans Purse – www.samaritanspurse.org
Recording Location
Boone, NC, USA
Organization featured in this Story
Samaritans Purse – www.samaritanspurse.org
People Interviewed and their Titles
Walter Lewis – Homeowner
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