Photo courtesy of Denice Massengale

Denice Massengale (right), teacher at Gentry Junior School, poses with her new friend, 95-year-old WWII Navy veteran Fabian Greenwell, who at one time served as a Goose Creek CISD Board member.

 Around 4 a.m. Monday, August 28, Denice Massengale, technology applications teacher at Gentry Junior School, sent out a desperate Facebook post for someone with a boat to rescue her friend’s mother in Whispering Pines. Another friend agreed to meet her at around 6:30 a.m. While waiting for the rescue, she came upon 95-year-old WWII Navy veteran Fabian Greenwell.  Greenwell also had been rescued from the rising water, along with his two dogs, by boat. The former GCCISD Board member had no family in the area, so even though she had just met him, Massengale took him and his pets home with her.

The next few days were spent cleaning out and gutting Greenwell’s house, assisted by volunteers, including Massengale’s husband Timmy and several family members. She, Lynne Foley from Lee College and others willing to donate their time and effort washed his clothes and took his military uniform to the cleaners.  Massengale even took Greenwell to the hospital when he said he felt ill, but she still doesn’t think she did anything out of the ordinary.

“I just happened to be there,” Massengale said. “I did what anyone else would have done.” Now, Massengale thinks of her new friend as family, and although he is staying in Sweeney with a relative, Greenwell says he’s ready to get back to Baytown.