MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Va. – Larry Carter has lived in the New River Valley his entire life.
A Vietnam veteran and a longtime staple in the community, many people know him for the different roles and jobs he’s done throughout the NRV.
“The donut man, the biscuit man, the pastor,” said Christopher Carter, his son.
In December, Mr. Carter had a medical emergency, landing him at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
“They gave me my medication, put me on my sleep apnea machine and the next thing I knew I was out,” said Larry Carter. “I was gone. I don’t know anything.”
During the night, Mr. Carter’s vocal cord paralysis, which he’d been dealing with for some time, had worsened, causing him to become unresponsive.
“My sister called me at one o’clock in the morning screaming and she said my stepmom had called her and said daddy wasn’t responsive,” Christopher Carter said.
“I was intubated, put in the ICU and I woke up the next morning,” said Larry Carter. “I didn’t even know where I was at. I knew I couldn’t talk.”
His son said his dad is like no one else he knows.
“He loves people. When you see him one day, he is that very same person the next day,” Christopher said.
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Mr. Carter is on the road to recovery, but he has a long way to go.
On social media, there has been a storm of support for him. It started with one person asking where the regular Walmart greeter was, and then a flood of comments from people praying and hoping he was okay.
“I didn’t know that many people took notice of me,” Mr. Carter said.
Mr. Carter said when he came back from Vietnam, he felt like no one cared for him, but now, the support from everyone has given him the love and homecoming he was always missing to know he belongs in this community.
“I lived with that void for a long time, but when I looked on that site and saw all those people asking about me, telling me how much they missed me, telling me how much they loved me, telling me how much they missed my smile,” said Mr. Carter. “That fast, it filled that void.”
“I want everybody that has responded to me to know that I appreciate you so much. I love you. I care about you. And thank you for caring about me.”
Larry Carter
If you would like to help, you can find the family’s GoFundMe here.