'It was rain. You don’t think about the rain'

By Ernie Suggs

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Like clockwork, Donald Warlow, 55, left his Villa Rica home at 2:30 a.m. to go to work at Vistar, a vending distribution company some two hours away in Gwinnett County. Warlow had driven trucks for the company for 30 years.

Warlow never made it home. Never made it out of Douglas County.

“You never expect your husband to leave work and not come home,” said Warlow’s sister-in-law Lisa Parr. “It was rain. You don’t think about the rain.”

County officials said Warlow’s Ford Ranger was washed downstream into West Billy Creek early Monday morning.

Parr, whose sister, Terry Warlow, had been married to Warlow for 35 years, said one of his co-workers called the house at about 7 a.m. It was unusual for him to be late for work.

“He usually talks to this man and his son, and they couldn’t get a hold of him. He had not gotten to work, so we knew something was wrong,” Parr said.

At about 9 a.m. Douglas County officials informed them that Warlow’s car and body had been found in the creek.

“It has been devastating,” Parr said. “We are just holding our own right now.”

Parr said that Warlow had one son, Donny, whom she described as his best friend. She said he loved to hunt and fish and would keep his three grandchildren every weekend.

“My sister is the oldest, and I am the youngest. They got married when I was 5, so I have known him all my life,” Parr said. “He was a good Christian man. He had a good heart, and he was a great and thoughtful man.”