As we grow older and older, we’re forced to say farewell to people we love.
Dying is an inevitable part of life – but that doesn’t mean it’s not sad when people are left to live alone, without their life partners.
Roger Reissig of Montgomery, Texas, loves his dad Jake.
And, he knows how much his dad misses his mom, who passed away, leaving Jake a widower.
Jake still wishes he could see and talk to his beloved bride, but it’s impossible. Nothing can bring her back.
But still, Jake does the best he can. The elderly man goes to her gravesite twice a day.
However, he’s doing so much more than just visiting her grave.
Every morning, the 86-year-old Jake goes to mass.
After church, he meets one of his 9 children for coffee. After that, he goes back home, walks to his garden and clips off a single rose.
He brings the rose to a cemetery to visit the plot of his wife of 65 years, Elizabeth.
Roger, Jack’s son, always thought he knew what his dad was up to. He knew his dad had a routine.
But he didn’t know there was more going on than he realized.
However, it became obvious when he visited the cemetery himself.
Roger quickly learned what else had been happening and that’s when Roger started snapping some photos.
During the summer, when Texas had a severe drought, Jake was worried the grass around Elizabets’s plot would dry up.
When the grass started to turn crispy and brown, he took a hose and watered the lawn around her stone twice a day.
Roger wanted the world to know what his father had done and wrote a Facebook post:
“Dad goes out to the grave to visit her twice a day. He has a routine where he clips some roses from his rose garden at home and delivers them to Mom. Then, he hooks up a hose and waters her grass twice daily,” Robert explained, detailing his father’s amazing act of love toward his beloved wife.
The result was clear. The wife’s green gravesite was one of the only ones getting watered, so it stood out from the rest.
But, more had happened at the cemetery than the usual routine.
One day, as Jake was watering the grass, he noticed a young woman kneeling down and crying.
He walked over to comfort her and discovered that her husband had been a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force; she lost him in 2010.
As the woman walked away, Jake added another task to his daily to-do list: water the gravesite of the fallen soldier, Joseph Villasenor.
“Dad decided to Honor this soldier and start watering his grass along with Moms daily,” son Roger explained, explaining the selfless thing his father was doing to show his gratitude to a fallen soldier for his sacrifice.
His dad was loyal in his duty.
“He does it every day. He said it is the least he can do for him after all that he sacrificed for us. You can see his green grass in the pictures down from Moms,” Roger pointed out.
The next time Villasenor’s family members visited the grave they couldn’t believe their eyes.
“They thought it was a miracle,” Roger said.
When Villasenor’s parents visited his grave and spotted Reissig standing there, they immediately hugged him.
“Very thankful for this young Man’s service and very proud of my Dad and what he does to Honor him,” Roger declared in his Facebook post, before concluding, “Love you, Dad!”
We need to hear more stories like this, stories that remind us what kind of person each of us should inspire to be!
Everyone could all learn a lot from Roger’s dad about love, honor, selflessness, respect, and service.
Thank you Jake for a lovely, heartwarming story of true love and dedication – this world could use more people like you!
The grass isn’t the only thing made beautiful by your selfless gesture. Jake also restored a lot of faith in humanity.
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