According to the VA, Willhite was a combat veteran from Soperton who served in the “brown water Navy” in Vietnam.
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Despite being confined to a bed, a dying veteran wanted nothing more than to go fishing one last time, and he received his final wish with the help of a dedicated hospice staff.
Staff at a Veterans’ Affairs hospital in Georgia granted a dying veteran his two last wishes: to be baptized and to go fishing one last time.. Even when they’re not biting, it’s still a good day to be outside.
“It’s called fishing, it’s not called catching”, Senters told WGXA.
Willhite died peacefully three days after his last fishing trip.
Since then, due to his condition, Willhite was forced to lay in his bed, awaiting his death.
His second wish was a bit more tricky as he had to remain bedridden.
Senters, and fellow hospice staff, helped prepare their patient for his final fishing trip, bringing bait and gear.
With the help of a motorized hospital bed, Willhite, accompanied by a social worker and nursing staff, was taken to the lake where he baited up for the last time on August 26.
The grandfather, from Dalton, Georgia, had been warned not to get his hopes up as it was unlikely he would catch anything in the newly filled lake.
But as fate would have it, Whillhite caught four fish in four hours – a feat he pondered often in his last days.
“I’ll never forget the look on his face”, social worker Greg Senters explained. “So I told him we may not catch anything, but he said it doesn’t matter”.
Lisa Kittrill, Willhite’s cousin, said that in those short moments, ‘when he was smiling and glad, when he wasn’t in pain, that made that hard situation better’. His cousin got the fishing tackle.
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But Willhite was a great fisherman in his day, according to his family.
