Wayne Liszewski was a regular at the Dunkin Donuts in Temple Terrace. He came in – on rollerblades – five times a day and always sat at the same corner table.
But now, there is a memorial for Liszewski that sits at that table.
“Wayne was a staple in this community. Everybody knew him,” General Manager Denise Hernandez said. “If you didn’t know Wayne, you didn’t live in Temple Terrace.”
Just before 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Liszewski was hit and killed by an SUV – just a couple blocks from the Dunkin Donuts he spent so much time in. It was three days before his birthday.
Another regular customer at the Dunkin Donuts pulled up on the crash and saw that it was “Skater Guy.” She returned to the Dunkin Donuts right away to tell Hernandez.
Hernandez jumped into her own vehicle and drove to the scene of the crash. When she got there, Liszewski had already been taken away. When she asked officers if he made it, they told her they could tell say anything until his next of kin was notified.
Hearing those words and seeing the look on their face, Hernandez said she knew and broke down crying.
Despite her own grief, she knew she had to go back and tell her staff.
“They saw my face, and I couldn’t even say it to them, and then they started crying,” Hernandez recalled on Thursday.
He was well-known all around Temple Terrace, spotted daily on his rollerblades all around town. He told Hernandez that he skated about 20 miles every day.
On a Facebook group, Temple Terrace Bulletin Board, community members continue to share their sadness and memories of “Wayne.”
As other regular customers began coming in that Sunday morning, they saw Hernandez and her staff in tears and asked what happened.
“I have seen grown men come in here and when I told them, cried. Devastated,” Hernandez said. “They couldn’t even order their food. They were beside themselves.”
Employees turned his favorite table into a memorial, which included a flower plant, a card, a roller skate and a Dunkin cup – with his regular order written on it – a large coffee with one creamer and a little bit of ice.
On Thursday morning, customers were still adding to his memorial.
“He was just a nice guy. That’s why I thought of him, it just broke my heart,” Mercado said after adding her own card to the table.
Mercado shared how she broke down in tears in her car before driving over to the Dunkin Donuts on Thursday, adding that something told her she needed to come in that moment.
Cards were important to Liszewski.
“He knew when all our birthdays were, and he would buy a card and come here and have all the employees sign it and then give it to us with scratch-off tickets inside of it,” Hernandez said.
Fittingly, his memorial continues to grow with more cards and lottery tickets.
But the staff remains in shock and heartbroken.
Hernandez said she keeps looking up every morning when she hears the door open. He was always her second customer, just after 5 a.m.
“If you didn’t know him as Wayne, you knew him as the rollerblader in boxer shorts,” Hernandez said, laughing. “‘Cause he wears boxer shorts.”
