Vendor Spotlight: Walter D.

Love, Loss & Maintaining Positivity Through It All

BY CLAIRE PORTER

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting Walter you know he is one of the kindest people in Nashville. Walter was a vendor many years ago and has recently returned to The Contributor after some time working in hospitality. He worked as maintenance, groundskeeping and housekeeping at hotels in South Carolina and Murfreesboro.

Walter loves people and cares for them deeply, so when he saw that they weren’t being taken care of properly at his hotels he decided it was time to quit.

“The owner didn't want to take care of the bed bugs problem and a little baby got bit so I quit,” he says. “They’re all owned by the same family so it made it hard for me to get a new job and then I don’t have a place to live so I can't apply at Walmart or something like that. So, I came back down to The Contributor and [signed back up]. With y’alls help I’m doing pretty good. I'm still sleeping in my van which is, ya know, no big deal. I go to a truck stop and take a shower every two days.”

Walter just recently had a piece published discussing the stereotypes surrounding people experiencing homelessness.

“I have people over where I’m selling that talk to me about how I don't look homeless because I'm too clean, I'm always neat and all that,” he says. “So I did write an article explaining that to them and hopefully they’ll understand that with their help that's why I look the way I do. Some people also ask, ‘Why do you wave so much?’ Well that's the kind of person I am, I try to smile at everybody.”

Though his joy is contagious, Walter hasn’t lived a life absent of hardships.

Walter got married when he was only 15 years old. He tells stories of spending evenings on the beach with his wife and having two beautiful daughters. In 1995 after 27 years of marriage Walter’s wife and daughters were suddenly killed in a car accident.

“I lost all three of them but they’re still with me,” he says.

Walter moved to Indiana searching for a fresh start and there he met his second wife, together they had a little boy. His wife had relapsed and in the process of fighting for custody of their son the two were in a terrible drunk driving accident.

“My son wasn't strapped in the car seat and he went through the windshield… He died, she survived. He’s still with me too.”

When I asked Walter despite the loss and hardships, how he has maintained such a joyful spirit and continued to push forward he said without hesitation, “My faith.”

“Yeah my faith because without him I wouldn't be here. I just turned 66 and he lets me wake up every morning and until he does take me, I can't question him.... I might not wake up tomorrow so I just live day by day.

You can’t plan a month down the road, six months, or a year because you don't know what might happen, he might decide tomorrow that it's time I come join him so you know, every day I wake up and give thanks, that’s the first thing I do as soon as I wake up and that's the way it should be.”

Walter misses his children dearly, but one thing he loves about The Contributor is when his customers bring their children to say hello. “I always love to talk to the kids where I sell.”

Walter’s last piece of advice to you is, “Never give up, keep pushing.” He wants to encourage readers to remember that there's someone who cares for them and is always there for them.