Navy veteran Don Walker and late wife share a special love story
May 27—Don Walker goes to the Georgia Veterans Memorial Cemetery near Milledgeville every day to sit and talk to his late wife Linda who is buried there.
"We were married in 1982, and during our marriage, we had bought two burial plots down in Glen Haven Memorial Gardens in South Macon because that's where we lived at the time," said Walker, a Navy veteran for 20 years who also fought in Vietnam. "I traveled back and forth to her grave for about a month. It was a nice place, don't misunderstand me, but I said something's wrong. This ain't where she belongs."
Walker, who now lives close to Lake Sinclair in Putnam County, said Linda was extremely patriotic and loved all branches of the military.
"She always enjoyed talking to military people," Walker recalled.
Earlier this year, Walker drove from his home to visit the Georgia Veterans Memorial Cemetery and realized it was the perfect resting place for his wife and someday for him.
"When I drove through the gate of the cemetery here, I said if they can make this happen, this will be her new resting home," Walker told The Union-Recorder earlier this week as miniature American flags were laid on the gravesites of military veterans and members of their families in observance of Memorial Day.
Walker's wish to have his wife's body exhumed from the cemetery in Macon and brought to its new resting place near Milledgeville became a reality.
Linda Lavender, the director of the Georgia Veterans Memorial Cemetery and her staff made it possible, he said.
"They are all wonderful people," Walker said. "I will never forget what they did to help make this possible. They are all just the sweetest people."
Walker's wife died at age 79.
"Her birthday is next week, and she would have been 80," said Walker, now 81.
The couple was married for 42 years.
"Back in the '50s, we went steady for four years, and then we were engaged for four years before I broke the engagement off and joined the Navy," Walker said. "It was the worst thing I ever done, not the Navy, but breaking up with her."
For the next 18 years, they never laid eyes on each other or communicated with each other.
They went their separate ways.
They both married and had children and they both later divorced.
"When I retired out of the Navy, I called her from my mama's house and she (Linda) answered the phone," Walker said. "I said, I bet you don't know who this is. And she said, 'I bet I do.'"
Walker said it was a love affair that really never ended.
"I messed up; I blew it, but God knows what he's doing and he brought us back together like it was supposed to be from the very beginning," Walker said.
