“I can remember laying in bed at night and praying they would get married,” said Jim McClendon of the man who became his friend, his mentor and his father when he was only 13. “Please Lord, let him be my daddy.”
Jim said, “To me, he was ‘Pop’.”
He says the death of Curtis Anders has left a void in his life that will never be filled. The man he knew as his father died of an apparent drowning after falling from his fishing boat into the Apalachicola River. His body was discovered Saturday morning. He was just three months shy of his 52nd birthday.
Jim was the oldest of four children when his mother, Donifan, and Curtis got married. “He took on all of us and raised us just like we were his own.”
It couldn’t have been easy, but despite the challenges Anders must have faced stepping into an “instant family.” He made it work, he said.
“I gave him trouble. I was hell on wheels,” he admits. Whenever Anders had to punish him, he said he would always tell him first, “I love you but I’m going to have to whup you.” Afterwards, “There were no harsh feelings. We would start all over again.”
At the age of 40 and with two daughters of his own, Jim realizes how much Anders did for him and his family. “He was patient and taught me things a boy should know like hunting and fishing and how to be a man.”
Anders was the center of their family, he said, and he drew them into his own family. They joined his parents, Jerry and Elaine Anders, his siblings and their children as they gathered each month to celebrate birthdays. “He loved family cookouts,” he said, and added, “He just loved everybody.”
He said he waited on the banks of the river with his mother for 13 days. “Every day felt like day one,” he said, “but the community never stopped showing their love and support.” People brought food and supplies for the family as well as the volunteers who spent nearly two weeks searching miles of the river. Having so many there to comfort them, pray with them and offer support “meant a lot to us,” he said.
Many came to the river to share their experiences with Curtis. His mother, Elaine, said her husband – who was overwhelmed by the stories of their son’s generosity and kindness – told her, “I feel like I didn’t even know Curtis.”
She said they learned of how he helped a Mexican couple who were having challenges making wedding arrangements here, and how he came to the aid of anyone who had just lost a job or was in need of firewood. His mother said he shared the food he grew in his garden and when he went fishing, he shared his catch. “He was always helping other people,” she said, explaining that every day as they waited at the river it seemed that a different set of people approached them to share their memories of their son’s kindness.
“He never had a harsh word for me,” Jim said and recalled how Anders often got him to focus by saying, “All right now, Jim….”
“I can still hear him,” he said Monday. “There’s never going to be another like him. I hope I never let him down.”