NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Going to the same place every morning, a man saw a pretty amazing way to use his time. It's something truly heartwarming.
"God always gives me a mission," said Roger Stewart. "I don't have to look for things. Things find me!"
Just about every morning at Spring Hill Cemetery in Nashville, you'll find Stewart.
"I call it my neighborhood," he said, looking around the cemetery.
He was here visiting the grave of his wife of 21 years, Beverly Jean Stewart. She went by Cassie.
"We went on our first date," Stewart said, remembering the story. "She wanted to go somewhere we could see the sunset on the other side of the water. We ended up at Camp Boxwell. That was perfect. We've been together every day since then."
Cassie died in 2023.
"It was two years ago yesterday," Stewart nodded. "I come every day just to spend some time with her. I spend time reading my Bible, my devotional."
Being at the cemetery every day, Stewart's talked to visitors and come to know the stories of many who are buried there.
"Deborah's right there," Stewart said, pointing to a grave. "She lived less than a year. There are probably a hundred veterans in this area. Right behind me here is [the grave of] Deantay Carter. He was 24 when he died. He's an Eagle Scout, and I'm an Eagle Scout. There's a story with every marker."
Stewart said it spoke to him when he would look out and see a grave that didn't have any flowers.
"A lot of them are forgotten," he said. "They don't have people to visit. I could have said, 'God, we need somebody to fill all these vases up', but I know he would have said it would be a good idea if you'd get up and start doing it."
Stewart pulled some flowers from the trunk of his car.
"I just started collecting flowers from different people!" he said. "There are so many people replacing flowers, some of them do it weekly. I see and talk with them and everything. Most time, I'll ask them, 'what are you going to do with the flowers?' They say, 'I'm just going to throw them away.' Nope. Let me have 'em!"
Stewart is making sure hundreds of graves have flowers.
"I feel like they need to be remembered. I carry water and soap and brushes in the car," Stewart continued, cleaning off one of the graves.
I asked Stewart, what would his wife think of all this work he's doing?
"I don't know," he laughed. "She probably would have said, 'about time you thought of that!' It just means a lot to people that somebody thinks it's important. It's a good thing to know you're helping somebody else. God provides the flowers and gives me the energy to get out here and do it."
If you want to donate flowers to Stewart, he's at Spring Hill Cemetery in Nashville in the mornings. If he's not there, Stewart said flowers can also be left with the funeral home.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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