Every evening as the sun sets, Alvine Walker furls a flag, sometimes with tears in her eyes, thinking of her granddaughter.

“It’s time to take it down,” the 73-year-old said outside her Winter Haven home on 32nd St. NW.



Walker’s granddaughter was 24-year-old Sgt. Amanda Older-Downing. The soldier had served in the Army with a surveillance brigade, including 15 months in Iraq.



“She fought so hard in Iraq,” Walker said.

But it wasn’t combat that took Amanda’s life. It was a rare adrenal cancer. Walker said military doctors never confirmed what may have caused the cancer, but the family suspects it was due to exposure to burn pits overseas.



Which makes it even more upsetting, that back in mid-June, someone stole a very special flag from outside Walker’s house. Only the mailman caught a glimpse.

“He said he saw two young boys walking down the street with the flag, pole and all,” Walker said. “And they were walking near Westwood Middle School.”

They likely didn’t know it was Amanda’s flag. The one she bought and never had a chance to fly. It had been given to Walker by her daughter, Amanda’s mom.

“I told her, ‘well I’m not going to fly it.’ And she said, ‘yes you are. She would want you to fly it,’ ” Walker said. “I just felt a closeness to her when I saw it, you know.”

The theft of the flag has been heart-wrenching and mind-boggling for Walker.

“They need to learn respect. To honor our servicemen that have gone on, not only the ones serving now, but the ones that have gone on, and fought for their freedom,” Walker said.

Soldiers - like Amanda. Or "Mandy," as her grandma called her.

“She loved people, and she loved her country,” Walker said.

Amanda also loved her family.

Before she died, Amanda gave her mom a note, with the title of a book she wanted Walker to have.

Holding up the note, and holding back tears, Walker read the note aloud.

“To Nana: ‘When Bad Things Happen to Good people.' ”

The title was fitting, as Walker still grieves the loss of her granddaughter and hurts when she thinks about the flag. She hopes it’s returned. It was unique, and screwed onto a metal pole.

Until then, whenever she sees a flash of red white and blue, she looks a little closer.



Just maybe, it will be Mandy’s.