For decades, Wally Sumner has been Alljoy’s backbone. Now he needs a helping hand

To say Walter Sumner is an Alljoy institution is a bit of an understatement.

Lovingly called Wally and known for cruising around in a golf cart with the family’s pet pig, Miss Lila, the master carpenter has been the community’s right-hand-man for decades. Sumner and his wife, Diane Owens, and, of course, Miss Lila, live in the eclectic Bluffton neighborhood, residing in one of the very first fish camps called “The Fiddler House.” Situated by a nearby landing meant Wally always came to the rescue when people needed help.

Laura Wilson, a close family friend and neighbor, said she jokingly introduced Wally to a local pastor as “the sheriff and mayor of Alljoy.” And in typical Wally wit, he ran with the joke never letting on that no such position existed in the unincorporated nook of Bluffton.

“Wally is kind of that person to us down here, he’s just that steady Eddie guy,” she said.

That kind of guy who has probably worked on most of the fish camps in Alljoy or has invited a new neighbor to a Lowcountry boil or has dropped off his famous homemade hash. Even North Carolinians have lauded him for his craftsmanship, which comes with honesty and fairness.

But since May 24, he’s been far from the tight-knit community that relies on him.

Days before, he’d been having shoulder and neck pain. Nothing out of the ordinary, really, and especially for someone doing arduous carpentry work. In typical Wally fashion, he told those who were concerned that he was “fine” and the pain would go away. But it didn’t. Matthew Shoemaker, who said Wally is his “first call” when anything in his home goes awry, drove Wally to an orthopedic doctor in Savannah.

“As Walter opened the door to get out, he crumbled,” Wilson said. “He tried to stand but the stroke was already starting.”

When Wally was settled into a bed in the intensive care unit about two days after being rushed to Memorial Health hospital in Savannah, Wally looked at Diane, weak and without answers: “I don’t know what’s going on, but I want to live,” he told his wife when he could still speak.

It was determined that Wally had suffered a spinal stroke — a rare condition where blood flow to the spine is blocked. It’s left him paralyzed from the neck down. He’s required a feeding tube for nourishment, a tracheostomy that’s usually hooked up to a ventilator to help him breathe and temporary dialysis to assist his kidneys. Wally needed surgeries, countless tests and multiple MRIs.

The price tag of care grew rapidly and got an even greater blow shortly into his hospital stay.

Three days after Wally was admitted, the office his wife had worked at for over 10 years unexpectedly closed its doors. The couple is without a consistent paycheck and insurance coverage. A long road to recovery, one that calls for Wally’s future placement in a spinal cord injury rehabilitation center, stretches out before them.

Rehabilitation, which his family hopes can be at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, will begin after he’s fully weened off the ventilator. On Saturday, Wally’s family and friends said he goes on and off the ventilator to strengthen his lungs, though it completely wears him out. He’s still in the ICU.

On Friday, Diane had a bright piece of news: “Wally is able to lift his left arm and place it on his abdomen.”

“I saw you move your arm,” she told her husband at his ICU bed. “That’s awesome!”

Rallying for Wally

Just like Wally would want it — those who know him, those who don’t and those who will meet him — gathered at Cheap Seats Tavern 2 in Bluffton for a corn hole tournament.

“Oh, corn hole, horseshoe and there would be winter campfires,” said Mandy Dunn, who helped organize the event and went to school with Wally’s son.

It was typical, she said, to come home to a perfectly manicured lawn.

“You cut my grass?” Dunn would ask Wally.

“Sure did,” he’d respond.

“That’s Wally,” Dunn said Saturday as she collected raffle tickets.

That relentless kindness was nothing out of the ordinary for son Weston Sumner growing up. His father, his superman, the light of Alljoy. He said his father has been in the same Alljoy house since the mid-1980s and has always put neighbors first.

When Weston got the news from his New York home, the words “father” and “hospital” were immediately alarming. His father was never the type to go to the hospital. He flew down immediately and moved into a nearby rental in Bluffton.

“I want to be the son to him like the father he is to me,” Weston said Saturday at the tavern.

Even before the event began, meant to raise money for Wally and Diane, the tavern had swelled with nearly 100 people. Some measured how far corn hole boards were spaced. Others scribbled their names on tickets for dozens of raffle items, including helicopter rides, golf games and dolphin tours.

“We were sitting together on a Sunday and said, ‘We’re gonna do this,’” said Joyce Cooper, who was at the organizing helm that took a short three weeks.

Alongside the event, a GoFundMe was launched to help with Sumner’s medical bills and recovery.

Cooper has known Wally for about 20 years, a friendship that began when the two worked construction together. Since then, they’ve done St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah, an event where Wally dyes his beard Irish green, every year. And don’t forget Bluffton Christmas. She couldn’t recall a time they hadn’t dressed up for either.

Then there were those who have never known Wally.

Call it Southern hospitality or Bluffton charm, but everyone who came by the tavern wanted to know about him. What was the event for, they wondered. How could they help?

Everyone was eager to know how he was progressing. Some said better. Others responded in more hushed tones. Shoemaker called it treading water — that each day is inching progress.

His “progress is slow and steady just like Wally,” said longtime friend Kathleen O’Carroll.

“He wants to live,” Diane said, repeating her husband’s wishes. And she will do everything to make that happen.

If making his recovery down the road easier requires retrofitting the golf cart by taking out a seat and replacing it with a wheelchair, then that’s what they’ll do once he gets out of a rehabilitation center. With Miss Lila riding and all.