Rachel, mother of Joseph Villasenor, a U.S. veteran visited his grave after a year only to see a bizarre sight. The grave looked completely different. She had tears in her eyes when she laid her eyes on the grave of her dead son. Something was not right! By looking at the condition of grave one could tell there was someone who used to visit his grave. She called her daughter in law and asked for the person responsible for the strange act but she said she was not aware of that. Nobody from the family used to come to visit him which clearly meant there was a stranger who used to visit him and did it all to his grave. Who was that mysterious visitor?
Staff Sergeant Joseph Villasenor was a warm natured person who would make friends with anyone he used to come across with. His infectious smile and inspirational personality would effortlessly draw the attention of people towards him. At the same time, the man was a brave heart who would not hesitate in taking on every challenge coming his way.
The signs were visible from the very beginning. He always had the passion of doing something for his country since childhood. One can gauge his eagerness by the fact that Joseph as a child was very keen on doing tasks given in school that used to inspire patriotism in kids. That was not the end after school got finished, the boy decided to pursue his career in the army. Along with his professional life, there was a big twist coming in his personal life too!
Thanks to his incessant efforts, Joseph soon became a military man. He had everything going on according to his plans when an unexpected person entered his life. During a gathering with friends and families, the military man spotted a beautiful lady who was standing all alone. No need to say he felt an instant attraction towards her and also felt the urge of knowing more about the lady. Joseph stepped towards her!
It was a magic! The two built the bond instantly. Thereafter they begin dating each other and soon their casual relationship turned into a serious one. It seemed Joseph had all the stars in his favor as his professional life, as well as the personal one, was going great. The couple tied the knot after few months of dating.
It was perhaps the best phase of his life. He had everything he always wished for. A perfect family and a successful career! Yeah, it seemed like a dream come true but little did he know it was a beautiful beginning of a nightmare. The man had no idea what future was holding for him.
After 16 years of blissful personal and professional life, the ill-omened day arrived. On the day in question, Joseph was going to a game in his car when an unannounced tragedy hit him. He was driving his way to the venue when his car crashed into a giant object. In a matter of seconds, the car that once was scratch free got badly mangled and shattered.
Joseph had been recruited in United States Air Force in 1994 and since then had been serving the country selflessly. Along with guarding the nation one more thing that held his passion was softball. He had enrolled himself in Charleston Air Force Base's softball league and used to play there regularly. That day too he was going to the venue to partake in one of the games.
Unfortunately, Joseph could not fight and died on the spot leaving behind his wife and parents. Joseph was too young to die and when his family learned about his fate the hell broke loose on them. His wife was at home when she got a call from the officer who broke the news to her. She rushed to the spot only to see her husband lying lifeless on the road.
The family just had lost an integral and the most loved member of the family to death. When his parents saw him lifeless, they began to scream and cry. Tears were streaming down their cheek. It was very difficult for them to believe that their son was no more in the world.
They decided to bury their son with all the respects. The entire town came on his funeral in order to show their respect. No doubt it was going to take years for the family to move on. Especially after the bizarre incident that took place years after his death.
They buried Joseph in a nearby graveyard. After the full day of mourning, they went back to their home leaving him alone to rest in peace. Initially, the family kept visiting his grave everyday but after a while, the visiting would be made weekly and monthly after some years.
Joseph's mother had not visited his grave for almost a year. His mother used to stay ill most of the time as she had grown quite old. But that day she felt an urge of visiting her son's grave. Her instincts were so right.
She visited his son's grave with roses in her hand. However, her heart skipped a heartbeat when she saw her son's grave. It wasn't the way she had expected. In fact, it looked nothing like the time when they had buried him. the grave was very different.
Her hands began to tremble. She dropped down the roses and fell on her knees. Her tears refused to stay back and soon blurred the strange vision she was beholding. There were many questions that swirled in her mind. Who did that to her son's grave and why?
Clearly, there was someone who had been visiting Sergeant's grave other than the family. In fact, this was after a long time, someone from the family was visiting him. Why would anyone visit his grave for no reasons?
She phoned her daughter in law and informed her about the strange happening. She asked her if she knew anything about that. It was then her daughter in law told her about something that answered all the questions she had in mind. She told her about an incident that happened to her when she was sitting beside Joseph's grave.
Back in 2015, Joseph's widow used to visit him regularly. Every morning she would go to him and tell him about all the things happening in her life. She would laugh and sometimes would cry on realizing that he was not going to reply. One fine morning when she was weeping while sitting on the side of his grave, she felt someone's hand on her shoulder.
She looked up and saw an old figure looming over her. There was a man who must be in his seventies standing beside him. He asked her why was she crying. The widow in return told him about her husband and how he died at the young age of 36. The man who himself had lost his dear wife was deeply moved by Joseph's grief. Though the conversation ended there, the old widower decided to do something for the late military man.
The old man was Jake Reissig who was 86 years old. He lost his wife, Betty of 65 years in 2014 and had been visiting her grave regularly since then. Even after 6 decades of marriage, the man was still deeply in love with his wife. He would bring her roses every morning. The pair had nine kids together. Unfortunately, in 2014 death separated them. Then also the man's love for his deceased wife did not lessen a bit.
He would visit her grave twice a day with roses in his hand. When Roger Reissig, son of Reissig asked him why he used to do that, he would say, “She always kept herself pretty, so I’m going to do the same.” Not only that he also used to water the grass surrounding her grave in order to keep it beautiful. Roger also said, "Liz," as he calls her, was always "dressed to the tee." He continued, "She was beautiful to him."
The man had a fixed routine every day. He used to go to the mass every morning and they would see one of his children for coffee. After that, he would return to his home's garden and would fetch a rose from his garden and would take that to his wife Elizabeth's grave. Roger said, “Dad would do anything for anybody.” “He’s got a ritual. He goes to mass in the morning, then we have a coffee, then he clips a rose from the rose garden that he has for mom. He still brings them to her,” he added.
The summer of 2015 brought a harrowing drought with itself. The whole of Texas was shadowed with drought. Due to the calamity, the grass enclosing his wife's grave began to turn brown and crispy and that really bothered him. To avoid further damage, he took up the task of watering the grass himself. It was all because of his constant efforts, the grass once again turned green and glistening.
While watering the grass one day, he heard a woman crying inconsolably. He went to her and asked her what was the matter. His son narrates the incident,"He saw a young lady down from him kneeling at a grave and crying uncontrollably, dad went down and talked with her and found that her husband had been a [staff sergeant] in the US Air Force and lost him in 2010." He knew very well how does it feel like losing the person you love the most. Along with that, he was very impressed by the kind of life this late army man led.
The old man began to water the grass surrounding Sergeant's grave also. Roger states, “He thought, ‘How could I not better honor him than by watering his grass also?’ It was his way of giving tribute to the late army officer. Every time he would water his wife's grass, he would water Sergeant's grave too. That was the reason why the grass of Sergeant was still shiny and greeny when grass belonging to all other graves had turned yellow and dry.
Roger Reissig reminisces,“I saw him going out to water (Villasenor’s) grave, and I asked him what he was doing.” “He said, ‘I’ve become friends with him now,’” he added. The old widower used to talk to the sergeant while watering his plot. The man had no idea his this little act of kindness was going to make a deep impact on sergeant's family.
When Joseph's mother Rachel came there she was completely taken aback by the sight. All other graves had dull and yellow grass her son's grave had green and lustrous grass. As she did not know anything about the efforts of the old man she wondered how was it possible. The sight indeed made her break down in tears.
Rachel and other family members could not thank Jake enough for being so thoughtful. Rachel said with teary eyes, "It was just incredible to know that a stranger would take that much time and care for our son who he didn't even know." Well, there was one more reason why Jake decided to give tribute to the soldier.
One of Jake's children Misha had tied the knot with a U.S. army man, Benjamin. However, their marriage shortlived as the man realized he is diagnosed with cancer soon after his deployment. As the disease had grown stronger in him, no medical treatment worked, not even chemo. Unfortunately, he succumbed to the disease in 2011 leaving behind Misha all alone. That unfortunate incident affected Jake a lot and when he listened to Joseph's wife story, he easily connected himself with her situation. And that is one of the reasons why he decided to honor him.
When someone asked Roger about how does he feel about all this, he replied with a big smile on his face, "the way dad treated mom and all of us -- it's not a surprise." Joseph's parents wanted to thank Jake for what he had been doing. Roger stated, “Joseph’s parents came out and Rachel thanked him and said, ‘I can’t believe a stranger would do this for him.’”
It was a very emotional moment for both of the families. One family had come to thank an old man for honoring their dead son who himself had lost his own wife. Roger put out the story on his social account and soon the post got millions of likes. The story went viral!
After the emotional meeting, Jake offered Rachel the hose by which he used to water Joseph's grass every day. He asked Rachel, "Do you want to water it?" The overwhelmed Rachel grabbed the hose and started watering the grass.
Jake refused to take the credit and explained to Click2Houston.com. "It was the least I could do for him, you know." According to him, it was an honor for him to come of any use to the late soldier.
As far as the post is concerned. The heart rendering story of Jake and his deed reached many people who. The post got shared by thousands of people and was followed by hundreds of comments. We have even compiled some of the comments in the next slides.
Just like you people, the social media users who came across this story too felt very emotional. There were many comments that conveyed users feelings. One of the users commented, "What a beautiful tribute." It was just the beginning there were many more users that expressed their emotions.
Another user fascinated by the love story of Jake and Elizabeth wrote, "Your mom and dad's romance is not over." This pure and heart-warming story testifies to the fact that even death cannot defeat love. Roger too commented on the one of a kind story of his parents. He said, "It was storybook."