By Linda Cicoira — When 83-year-old Glenwood “Sonny” Bennett, of Onley, had a heart attack 20 years ago, he had to give up fishing, a job he had for almost four decades.
“After a couple of years, I felt like doing something because I was just laying around,” he said Tuesday. So, Bennett decided to recreate the boats he operated over the years.
Bennett has constructed 25 boats. “I’ve given most of them away, sold a couple,” he said. “I have eight here at the house now. I just do this as a hobby.”
He even made a replica of the house where he and Maybelle, his wife of 61 years, live. And he made every piece of furniture in the house.
Dr. Lloyd J. Kellam, a local cardiologist, was lucky enough to receive one of Bennett’s Chesapeake Bay buy boats. Kellam didn’t hesitate to take a break from his busy day last week to smile and pose with the beauty, which is appropriately named Riverside, for the local hospital where the doctor practices. It is displayed in his offices there.
Bennett is a patient of Kellam’s. He gets to visit his boat whenever he has an appointment and hear how much Kellam appreciates it.
“I’m glad that he enjoys it,” Bennett said. “I had him come over here and look at it. He really loved it, so I said he could have it. I thought it would be wonderful to name it Riverside.