As we get older, we are forced to say goodbye to the people we love.
Dying is an inevitable stage of life, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t sad when people are left to live alone, without their life partners.
Roger Reissig of Montgomery, Texas, loves his father, Jake.
And he knows how much his father misses his mother, who passed away and left 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.
Roger Reissig / Facebook
Every morning, Jake, an 86-year-old, goes to mass.
After church, he meets one of his 9 children for coffee. After that, he returns home, walks to his garden, and clips off a single rose.
He brings the rose to a cemetery to visit the grave of his wife of 65 years, Elizabeth.
Jack’s son, Roger, always thought he knew what his father did. He knew his father 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.
Roger Reissig / Facebook
During the summer, when Texas was experiencing a severe drought, Jake worried that the grass around Elizabets’s plot would dry up.
When the grass started to turn crisp and brown, he took a hose and watered the lawn around her stone twice a day.
Wanting the world to know what his father had done, Roger 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.
Roger Reissig / Facebook
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 there was a lot more going on at the cemetery than the usual routine.
One day, while 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.
Dignity Memorial
When the woman left, Jake added another task to his daily to-do list: watering the gravesite of the fallen soldier, Joseph Villasenor.
“Dad decided to Honor this soldier and start watering his grass along with Mom daily,” son Roger explained, explaining the selfless thing his father was doing to show his gratitude to a fallen soldier for his sacrifice.
Roger Reissig / Facebook
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.
Roger Reissig / Facebook
“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!”
Roger Reissig / Facebook
We need to hear more stories like this, stories that remind us what kind of person each of us should be inspired to be!
Everyone could learn a lot from Roger’s dad about love, honor, selflessness, respect, and service.
Thank you, Jake, for this beautiful and heartwarming story about true love and commitment – 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.
