Man visits wife's grave every day since her 2009 death

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Not even his wife’s death seven years ago has stopped a Tennessee man from staying by her side.

Each day since the death of Fred Gilland's wife, the 78-year-old has made his way to Knoxville's Lynnhurst Cemetery to spend time with Janice Gilland, WATE reported.

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The couple’s story started more than five decades ago.

“I just loved her the first time I (saw) her,” Fred Gilland told WATE. “I don’t do anything else until it’s time to come out here. I figure the time to come out here, and I’ll come sit for an hour, hour and a half, and I go back home, watch TV. That’s it. That’s my life.”

Fred Gilland said his late wife went blind at the age of 57 and, after suffering several health complications, died in 2009.

“I didn’t feel like living anymore,” Fred Gilland told WATE. But he promised Janice Gilland on their wedding day that he would never leave her side, and he told the news station his visits were a way to keep that promise.

“It makes me feel good,” he said. “I talk to Jan better over here.”

He has become a fixture at Lynnhurst Cemetery, often greeting other visitors with a friendly wave, according to WATE.

“(Other visitors) just talk and pray with me,” he said. “A lot of them pray with me, and I like that. I like those people.”

Read more at WATE.com.

Cox Media Group