“I am Habersham!” How would you describe someone you think is representative of the truly extraordinary people who make up our community?
Meet Andrew Waite, perennially happy! Huge heart! Dependable! Andrew is all of these and more. Most people know Andrew, a 2004 graduate of Habersham Central High School, as the upbeat, affectionate grocery sacker at Ingles in Cornelia. If there was a Golden Globe Award for grocery baggers, Andrew Waite would be the winner…years ago….and several times over.
Andrew has many friends, one is Mary Margaret Bagwell, a former teacher of Andrew’s at Habersham Central. Their mutual admiration is evident when she rushes into Ingles to purchase ingredients for a Tomato Pie or Cheryl’s Fancy Pants Chicken Casserole. Andrew is always ready with, “Can I help you find something? How’s Mr. Bagwell?” Andrew is consistently concerned about friends, relatives, and even those he may not know.
As Mary Margaret Bagwell leaves Ingles, Andrew takes the groceries to her car, and you get the idea that, if asked, he might even jump in the car, ride to her house, help carry the groceries inside and insist on darting up Wayside Street to the food store. He’s that kind…of a kind young man.
Wesley Kelly, long-time manager of the Cornelia Ingles describes Andrew Waite in one word, “Courageous.” Andrew’s fellow middle and high school friend, Kirk Stafford, says of his former Raider peer, “I can honestly say that I’ve never known anyone who cared more for others, than Andrew.”
Andrew loves NASCAR, sunsets and sunrises, Georgia Bulldogs, the beach, outdoors, his church and great quotes like: “My family is important to me. My relationship with God is important to me. My job is important to me.”
Most people in Habersham know that the Bagwell’s daughter Caroline, died tragically on Father’s Day in a car accident in 2008 while attending Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville. Caroline, a beautiful young woman and talented soccer player left our lives too soon, and the heartbreak of living without her has been challenging for her family, friends and many in our community.
A few months back, close to Valentine’s Day, Mary Margaret received word from a relative that some roses had been placed on Caroline’s grave, but with no note attached. First, Mary Margret called friends and relatives in Augusta to see who had been so sweet to leave the flowers. No one seemed to know who had left the flowers in Caroline’s memory. Then she asked friends in Athens, and then Habersham. Nothing. Weeks went by, then months, and the source of the roses remained a mystery, and the need to discover who had been so kind faded away. Until…she needed something at Ingles.
As usual, Mary Margaret ran into Andrew as she passed through the checkout counter. Andrew finished sacking her groceries and followed Mary Margaret to her car. Once the groceries were safely in the car, Andrew slipped out his cell phone, went to his photo page, and showed a photograph to Mary Margaret. It was a picture of flowers for Caroline in the Augusta cemetery.
“Andrew, you saw that, too, that was so kind of someone, I have been trying for months to figure out who put them there,” Mary Margaret questioned aloud to her former student. “I did, Ms. Bagwell. I put them there,” the kind face with a huge heart confessed to his teacher, a teacher who had made him feel extraordinary over the years while being taught each day in her classroom. A teacher who had inspired him as a student. Both are Habersham.
“Andrew! You put those roses there? How? How did you get there? How did you know where to go? How was was that possible?” the questions seemed to pour out of Mary Margaret’s misty eyes.
“I saved money for gasoline, looked on the internet to see where she was buried, talked my friend who has a car into driving me to the cemetery in Augusta on my day off, bought the flowers at Ingles and left them for her on her grave. And I took this picture,” Andrew said, holding up his cell phone, beaming at his teacher, smiling, proud, and most of all, expressing a simple act of kindness in the midst of the worst tragedy that could ever happen to a parent, the loss of a child.
“Oh, Andrew,” Mary Margaret sighed, hugging the young man as if he were her own child.
Andrew Waite and Mary Margaret Bagwell are Habersham! …and by the way, Happy Birthday to both Andrew, July 8…and Mary Margret, July 18
