WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — For Walter Smith, a trip to the Palm Beach Zoo is a walk through his second home.
“Animals are my family, I know all the animals,” he said.
Smith knows because he visits the zoo several times a week and has done so for the past 13 years. With his long lens camera, Smith makes a bird call, snaps a picture of a flamingo and smiles as he takes in the zoo.
“I see the smile on your face, like, this is your happy place?” asked WPTV anchor Mike Trim.
“Well, this is my family,” Walter said.
A family that heals wounds unseen. Smith is a Navy veteran who served in the late 1960s. Non-combat related incidents, he’d rather not talk about, led him to a dark place mentally for most of his life.
“I knew there was something wrong,” he said, “but I never could put my finger on it and acknowledge it.”
Through help with the Veterans Affairs, a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis was a breakthrough, helping Smith get to brighter days.
“I’ve dealt with it, I accepted it, and I’m just trying to live my life as it is and I don't want to go backwards,” he said.
Now it’s forward, walking his path through his peaceful paradise. Seeing his happiness means a lot to zoo staff as well.
“He is an ambassador of the zoo, he’s an ambassador of Palm Beach County,” Erin Ward, VP of marketing at Palm Beach Zoo, said. “I mean how lucky are we that we get to have him every week.”
Every week is a new step in Smith’s healing.
“I’ve come a long way, I really have,” he said.