Long-lost wallet emerges from Possum Kingdom waters, reuniting widow with late husband’s memories
Story by Michelle Ince | Photos courtesy of Chris Sisk and Wendy Oswald
An undated photo of Martin and Wendy Oswald
For several years, Chris and Stephanie Sisk have been guiding charters at Possum Kingdom as owners of Krazy Fins, and fishing is a daily routine for both of them.
But a couple of months ago, something extraordinary happened as they were fishing near the shoreline, popping their slab-spoon lures off the bottom.
“I just hooked this thing,” Chris Sisk said, “and when it came up, I thought it was a turtle because it was brown and had mud all over it.”
The couple quickly grabbed a net and brought the object into the boat, and they soon realized they had found someone’s long-lost wallet. Inside it was an expired driver’s license from 1998 bearing the name of the wallet’s owner: Martin Ernest Oswald. The wallet also contained Oswald’s EMT badge.
Chris Sisk said he placed the wallet on the console of their boat to let it dry, then went back to the boat ramp and told his friends about what he and his wife had found. One of his friends, Jesse Swanson, did a little bit of research and found out Oswald died in a plane crash outside of Mineral Wells in 2004.
Chris Sisk said he and his wife wanted to return the wallet to Oswald’s family, so they posted about it on social media pages in Possum Kingdom and Mineral Wells. Eventually, a man on the Mineral Wells website said he had worked with Oswald and knew Wendy Oswald, his wife.
Around the same time, Chris Sisk said, a previous guest on one of his charters saw the post about the wallet and did a data search. The search showed that Oswald’s wife now lived in Katy, Texas, and the results also included her phone number.
Armed with that information, Chris Sisk called Wendy Oswald, and he said she was in tears for almost the entire call, overwhelmed that there was something of her husband’s still out there.
“Just talking to her made me emotional,” he said.
After their conversation with Wendy Oswald, the Sisks mailed the wallet to her the very next day. Three days later, when she received the wallet, she let the couple know how grateful she was for their efforts to return it to her.
This isn’t the couple’s only heartwarming story, though. Chris Sisk said after he and his wife moved to PK, he fished the lake for a year straight as a hobby. He said they were catching fish really well on a night when he took a father and son out with him – the son probably in his 40s, the father in his 60s – and both men were laughing and joking the entire night. At the end of the trip, the son approached Chris Sisk with tears of joy in his eyes, thanking him for the experience. The man explained that he and his father had had a falling out, and the fishing trip was the first time the two of them had talked in 20 years.
It was after that emotional start that the Sisks decided to start Krazy Fins and take people out fishing on a full-time basis.
Chris Sisk said he loves taking youngsters out on the lake and getting them hooked on fishing. He said there’s nothing like watching children’s faces light up with excitement when they hook their first fish. He added that they have one client whose child asks to book a Krazy Fins trip every time the client visits the lake.
Stephanie Sisk said one of her funniest memories involved a group with one client who would touch a pole and just say, “Here, fishy, fishy,” and immediately the pole would bend with a striped bass on the end of the line. She said his friends joked that it was only happening on one side of the boat, so he went to the other side, touched a pole, and said, “Here, fishy, fishy.” The pole instantly bent, and they reeled in another fish.
She said she was telling the story a couple of months ago on one of their trips, and she went to touch a pole to show how the man did it. As soon as she said, “Here, fishy, fishy,” the pole instantly bent, startling her to the point that she made somebody else reel in the fish.
One thing the couple agrees on is that PK is a special place. Chris Sisk said when they first visited the area for a friend’s wedding, he was instantly impressed with the fishing at the lake, especially since the first fish he caught fought harder than anything he’d ever experienced before.
Leading guided trips has been a rewarding experience for both Chris and Stephanie Sisk, and they said watching friends and families come together and enjoy each other’s company makes each trip worth it.
“We’ve never had a bad trip,” Chris Sisk said.
Krazy Fins is available for striper, sand bass and catfish guided trips, and Stephanie Sisk also has her own pontoon boat, on which she serves as the captain for fishing, tying out at Hell’s Gate or just enjoying the scenery at the lake. To book a guided trip with Krazy Fins, call (817) 374-9513.
Photo of Martin Oswald’s wallet after it dried out.
