Along with my husband Brian and our daughter Brianna we have made this website in loving memory of Zac Woods, our son and Brianna’s brother. Our goal is to give back to the wonderful people in our community who have cried with us, prayed with us and who have helped our family in so many ways. It was a beautiful sunny day. My husband and I were working in the yard when Zac came and told us he was g
oing out on his friend’s boat. He gave me a hug and a kiss good bye. He said, "I’ll see you later." Then he was gone. We never got to see him again. I work at a restaurant that overlooks the ocean and I went to work at five that day. I am not sure what time it was but I saw all kinds of lights from boats and helicopters over the ocean. I got a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. I dropped everything and called Zac. No answer. I asked what was going on and someone told me there was a boat going around in circles. One person was okay and one was missing. I had a horrible premonition that it was Zac. The police came to my work to get me and then the nightmare truly began. There was a mechanical problem with the boat that caused it to turn abruptly. Both my son and his friend were thrown overboard. A kayaker saw Zac’s friend and helped him get to shore. Zac was never spotted. In the days that followed the Coast Guard, the State Police, the harbor masters and anyone with a boat was out searching. The official search had to stop after a week, but our locals never gave up. Two weeks later, a local snorkeler went out to look for Zac. He said “I am going to bring this boy back to his family.” He went to the same place every one had searched over and over again. While he was out there, he had a problem with his snorkel and decided to come back. But, something compelled him to keep looking. A little further on, he found Zac. This man brought our son home. It was the second blessing we had that week. Zac’s daughter was born on July 27th. A part of him will live on as we put him to rest. Zac worked as a screen printer. He loved his work. He was always trying to make something different, something that would make him famous. One day he came home with a baseball hat with his signature on the front and the rim torn off. He called it his rimless basketball hat. I told him he was crazy, but he loved it. He also made a Frisbee with his signature on it for his dog. His co-workers found the screen with his signature. They made about two hundred and fifty yellow T shirts with Zac’s signature on the front. We, as a family, gave them out to family and friends at the funeral. This way they could have something from him. After the funeral all his friends and family came to us to see if we could make sweatshirts etc. That’s when we decided to make this web site. I can’t tell you enough about how our community wrapped their arms around our family over those terrible two weeks and continue to do so, today. This is our way to pay it forward. Zac would want us to do that. Honestly, Zac would be very happy that he did make a shirt everyone wanted. I want to thank you for taking the time to read our story and thank you for any purchases you make.
