Fort Worth’s ‘Cowtown Wine Dude,’ who died of coronavirus, remembered for big heart
When Nick and Lynda Sanders look at their grandchildren, they see a little bit of their son, Wade, staring back at them.
Dallas, 20, has her father’s independent streak. She’s a fighter on the soccer field, has a wealth of knowledge and has the same flair for serving others that Wade Sanders had.
Lawson, 16, took after his dad artistically and shares his sense of humor. He has a handful of guitars, plays the drums and has a deep connection with music — specifically with Stevie Ray Vaughan, where he gets his middle name.
Seeing their son reflected in their grandchildren is something the Sanderses take comfort in now.
Wade Sanders, of Fort Worth, was 48 when he died on Tuesday after becoming infected with the novel coronavirus. His family said he was also battling melanoma.
His parents were also hospitalized after contracting the coronavirus in late March. None of them know exactly how they got sick.
Lynda and Nick, who is the mayor of Trophy Club, were separated at Baylor Scott & White in Grapevine, and Wade was in a Dallas hospital after being transferred from Medical City Alliance.
“We never thought when we all had to go to the hospital that we would never all see each other again,” Lynda said.
She choked back tears Thursday afternoon as she talked about her only child.
Occasionally, she corrected herself. Was, not is. Had, not has.
“It’s been really hard,” she said.
The ‘Cowtown Wine Dude’
Lynda Sanders laughed when she talked about how spoiled Wade was growing up.
“We always tried to make him an intricate part of the family, and we wanted him to have a say in what we did,” she said.
She first noticed his adventurous spirit when he was about 7. They took a family vacation to go skiing in Europe. As Wade walked around their fancy hotel, marveling at everything around him, he made a declaration.
“This is what I want to do,” he said.
“Most kids want to be firemen or doctors but Wade wanted to own a ski resort or hotel,” Lynda Sanders said.
He graduated from college with a degree in hotel and restaurant management and moved to Alpine — about seven hours west of Fort Worth — to work at Reata. He honed his skills as a chef and became known for his chicken fried steak. It was in Alpine where he met his wife, Anne, who was a student at Sul Ross State University and also worked at the restaurant.
Suddenly, his love for his work and his culinary creativity turned into love for Anne, and later, for their children, Dallas and Lawson.
“He realized that working until 3 a.m. when he had kids wasn’t going to work,” Nick Sanders said. “He became a sommelier.”
He eventually took on the nickname “Cowtown Wine Dude” (he loved the movie “The Big Lebowski”) and then became famous in the Fort Worth hospitality world for having shuffled restaurant employees and guests down 35 flights of stairs in 2000 when a tornado hit what is now The Tower in downtown Fort Worth. Reata was on the 35th floor at the time.
But no matter what he did professionally, being a father was always his focus.
“Wade always said, ‘If I can be half the dad that my dad was, I will be a fine father,’” Lynda said. “He tried to emulate Nick because Nick was such a good father, and Wade aspired to be a good dad and he certainly managed to do that. Dallas and Lawson and Anne, they were his life.”
Lots of love to give
On Thursday afternoon, Anne, Dallas and Lawson sat together and thought about the things Wade would be remembered for.
One, his sense of humor. Two, his expansive knowledge of wine. Three, having a lot of extra love to give.
“He was always the loudest dad on the sidelines,” Dallas said.
Before playing soccer at Lubbock Christian University, Dallas played locally, and Wade never missed a game.
“He’s always been my personal coach and my personal cheerleader and my number one supporter, and he always knew what to say,” Dallas said. “He would text me or call me before every single one of my games that he couldn’t go to when I left for college.”
Lawson said if any of their friends needed extra parental love, Wade was there for them.
“He didn’t even realize he was doing it, and I don’t think we did either,” he said.
When news began to spread of Wade’s death, his family was met with hundreds of messages and stories. They began to hear stories they didn’t know existed, and they saw the full scope of Wade’s impact on the world.
And in that, he will live on.
“For all of these people to have these stories and be so impacted by the loss of him, it made us really see his love,” Anne Sanders said.
‘I love you more’
Wade was hospitalized on March 22 after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
An hour and a half later, he was on a ventilator.
“We were never able to go to the hospital,” Anne Sanders said.
On April 5, he was removed from the ventilator. Anne and the kids talked to Wade a few times a day, depending on the nurses’ schedules. Their chats were done virtually and allowed them to see Wade’s huge smile.
When his kidneys began to fail, he began dialysis. Despite what was happening, Wade’s spirit was always positive. But two days after being removed from a ventilator, Anne said, they began to notice some neurological issues.
“You could tell he knew what you were saying but words weren’t coming out,” she said.
Wade started to have difficulty talking, to the point where his family realized they should stop asking him questions and instead focus on things to talk to him about.
They told him they loved and missed him.
Three days later, Wade was tested for COVID-19. The results were negative. But as is standard, before someone can be removed from the isolation ICU, they must receive two negative tests. Wade’s doctor was hopeful and began a plan to get his patient speech therapy and more dialysis.
But on April 14, the second test came back positive.
“The last time we saw him, he smiled for about two minutes solid when we just talked about memories and the things we’d do when he got home,” Anne Sanders said.
The last words he said to his family were, “I love you more, and I miss you guys.”
This story was originally published April 16, 2020 at 6:09 PM.
