Pinellas man, 89, found dead at home after Helene was ‘grandpa’ of Riviera Bay

Tammie Lockwood has to remind herself that Jerome Waite is gone.

The friends chatted constantly — Waite sometimes called her five times a day. She misses his fishing stories and gruff wisdom. Grief hits Lockwood hardest when she thinks of something to tell him, and remembers that she can’t.

“He’s not here anymore,” she said. “It’s just really hard to grasp that.”

When Lockwood and her husband checked on Waite at his Riviera Bay home after Hurricane Helene had passed, they found the 89-year-old dead inside his garage Friday morning.

The house was still inundated with floodwaters when investigators arrived, and medical examiners listed Waite’s death as a “suspected drowning.”

Waite liked to tell Lockwood about trips to the Keys or his career as a young surveyor on projects across the state, including Alligator Alley and Sawgrass Lake Park. When age restricted his mobility, he spent a lot of time watching westerns and romance movies on TV.

Waite had a magnetic personality, Lockwood said, despite experiencing tremendous loss late in life.

About two years ago, Waite’s son and daughter both died within six months of each other. In May, his wife, who had dementia, also died.

Lockwood, 58, had been a family friend and caregiver for Waite and his wife, Kathy, for three years.

The couple were married 32 years, Lockwood said. When Kathy died, Waite focused his affection on the neighborhood kids, who often stopped by to chat. He could usually be found sitting in his garage with the door open.

“He told me one day, he said, if it wasn’t for those kids coming by, he said that he would be dead by now,” Lockwood said. “That was the sum of his life.”

Waite would tell jokes and give the kids Kool-Aid pops, said Nicole Pavlica, a neighbor two doors down.

“He was like the grandpa in the neighborhood,” Pavlica said. “He had nicknames for all of them.”

He and Pavlica’s 10-year-old son, who Waite called “cottonhead” because of his bleach-blonde hair, were especially close. The older man often called on the boy to help with chores he struggled with at his age, like taking the garbage cans to the street.

“Jerry was really, really loved in our neighborhood,” she said. “I don’t want people to think that he’s just somebody who was forgotten.”

She said Waite helped instill “old school values” in her three children. In return, the man who had no family nearby had some companionship.

“I appreciated the life lessons they learned from Jerry of helping your neighbors out,” she said. “After his wife died, you know how it’s important to still be present for somebody.”

About a week before Helene hit, Waite sent Pavlica’s son home with an ice cream maker he often used to make treats for the neighborhood kids.

Pavlica stowed it on a high shelf in her garage. Surge didn’t spare her home, which sits even lower than Waite’s house, Pavlica said.

“We’ve lost, like, everything in our home, but the ice cream maker made it,” she said. “Someday, when we’re in a better situation, we will definitely make his special flavor — he liked to do peanut butter-maple. We will make it in honor of Jerry.”