- April 19, 2024
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WINTER GARDEN A smile spread on Donald Wise’s face as he walked into the Winter Garden Elks Lodge and was immediately greeted by dear friends and family members, who got up from their tables to hug and converse with him. Some people hadn’t seen him in years but came to the fundraiser Jan. 9 to support him anyway.
Friends from high-school days laughed and reminisced about the rivalry between Lakeview and Ocoee high schools. Five of Donald’s eight siblings gathered at a table for some camaraderie, waiting on their brother to arrive. Everyone enjoyed a meal of barbecue, beans and various sides and desserts. Sonia Brown, a childhood friend of Donald’s and one of the event’s organizers, went around to each table and collected money in exchange for raffle tickets.
“I know what medical bills can be,” Brown said. “We’ve had people through the years who have had real hardships with disease an it takes a toll on the family. That’s when a community like Winter Garden comes together,” Brown said.
Along with diabetes, Donald was diagnosed with stage 5 renal failure. He was placed on the Florida Hospital Transplant Institute’s United Network for Organ Sharing list on July 29, 2015. He undergoes dialysis at home, seven days a week, about eight hours a night.
“There’s a lot to it,” said Donald’s wife, Candy Wise. “And then he has to weigh himself twice a day — each time he hooks up — and has to take his temperature. You’ve got to put on the mask, put on the gloves, you’ve got to remember to shut the ceiling fan off, the air-conditioning off, the purifier off and make sure you shut the windows. All of that has to be off before he can hook up so you don’t contaminate.”
Donald, 61, was born and raised in Ocoee. The middle child of nine, he is described by his wife as the soft-spoken one. He loved growing up in Ocoee and the small-town feel and easy living that came with it.
“It was nice: Everyone knew everybody; everyone here (tonight) I grew up with,” he said. “There was a gas station there in the middle of town, and all of us used to go there at night and just sit around the cars and talk and all that stuff. We used to go to the Star-Lite all the time, that was the drive-in theater right there in Winter Garden…I’ve loved it ever since I was little.”
Candy also grew up in Ocoee, and their families knew each other, because “everybody knew everybody.” They married in 1974, when she was still a senior in high school.
“He’s real gentle, kind and quiet,” she said. “He kind of stays to himself and stays in the background. He coached football. He’s mostly quiet and soft-spoken.”
They have two sons, Heath, 38, and Brent, 36. Donald was not only involved with the community but also with his children. When the boys were growing up, he got more involved with the community, coaching both Little League and football until the boys grew up.
“He was always, always in our lives, anything we did with our sports, he also was always there being our No. 1 coach,” Brent said. “He would take us out on the weekends, we’d go hit a ball, he’d throw it to us. He would just give the shirt off his back to somebody; he’s always putting other people first.”
“It means a lot. And I want to be the one giving. I don’t want to have to receive money and everything. But it means everything to me. They’re just good friends and everything.”
-Donald Wise
In addition to coaching, Donald, along with his brothers, helped build the Ocoee Bulldogs field. It took a while, he said, and was a lot of work, but it was worth it to have a functioning field again. He said in the summer, before the field was fixed, the lake would overflow into it. Eventually, pipes were put in that drained the overflow back into Lake Apopka.
“They had to wait until it drained to play and fix it, but that and laying grass and all that stuff, and doing the concession stands and such, it was fun with all the people that volunteered,” Donald said.
Brent recalled one of his favorite memories with his dad, when they would take a tarp and spread it over their front yard to make a big Slip ’n Slide out of it.
“He would put soap suds all over it, and we pretty much destroyed the whole yard just making a big Slip ’n Slide out of it,” Brent said. “He was the first one to slide, and then me and my brother would go out and just play in it all day.”
Like anyone battling an illness, he has good days and bad days. Sometimes the medicine he takes makes him tired, and he has to sleep most of the day. But when he has his good days, Heath said, he is up for just about anything and being involved in his three grandchildren’s lives.
“For me, because I’ve really never had a dad, he’s been awesome,” said Heath’s wife, Melissa. “I can see by the way he raised (Heath) and by the way he treats our daughter that his dad was a good influence in his life, and so having not grown up with a father, it means a lot.”
Heath said it’s proof of the value of having great friends and growing up in a small, supportive, tight-knit community.
“It’s amazing: There (are) a lot of great friends he’s had over the years ... and it’s just great to see all of them come out and support them because he’s given so much to them that I think they’re coming together to give back to him,” Heath said. “He’s lived here his whole life. I’ve lived here my whole life, just seeing the fact that they were growing up and now they’re all still together … it’s a great community.”
And although the common thread throughout the night centered on the simple idea of people coming together to help others, Donald’s gratitude and modesty shined through.
“It means a lot,” he said. “And I want to be the one giving. I don’t want to have to receive money and everything. But it means everything to me.”
Candy emphasized the importance of teamwork in their relationship and acknowledged their faith as an integral part of their lives.
“I’ve had to learn along with him; he’s had to help me learn to help him,” she said. “(But) we’re in the good Lord’s hands, and He’s pulling us through.”
Contact Danielle Hendrix at [email protected].
