At a Luby’s restaurant in Brownsville, Texas, there was a table no one wanted to wait on. Day after day, Walter Buck Swords, an 89-year-old World War II veteran who complained about everything, sat there: cold food, too much ice, service that was never enough.
The waitresses avoided him. Melina Salazar did not.
For nearly seven years, she waited on him without fail. He almost never responded. She never gave up.
On July 15, 2007, Walter died. Melina found out through the local newspaper obituary, weeks after he stopped appearing at his table by the window.
Five months later, days before Christmas, a lawyer sought her out at the restaurant. Walter had left instructions in his will: 50.000 dollars in cash and his 2000 Buick, for her.
““I still can’t believe it””, Melina told TV station KGBT-TV, describing Walter as someone who was a little grumpy.
Before settling in Brownsville, Walter had owned a transportation business for more than forty years in Illinois and seventeen more in Iowa. He was buried in the cemetery in Galva, his hometown.
The man who never said thank you said it in the only way he knew how to do something big.
