Storm clouds build over the distant mountains and a light rain mists Pine Grove Cemetery in Canton on a Wednesday afternoon. The silence is broken by the occasional passing car on Route 108.

And by the whir of Conrad “Hutch” Hutchinson’s lawn mower.

“They don’t care for their lots very well and that doesn’t suit me,” said the 73-year-old Jay resident. “So I do it myself.”

He packs up his Ford F150 with lawn care essentials and travels to the cemetery where his wife, parents, a brother, an aunt and a few high school friends have been laid to rest.

He meticulously mows a 10-foot by 10-foot swath around their headstones, and waters the flowers, trims bushes and sweeps grass clippings off the monuments.

He has done this since his father died in 1966.

Though, he admits, he has been paying closer attention since his wife died only a few short months after they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2005.

“They were my mother, father and she was my wife, the mother of my child. It’s out of love. It’s out of respect,” Hutchinson said after sweeping off the place where he will be buried by his wife’s side some day. “When you’re married to someone for 50 years, you should care for them.”

Hutchinson realizes it would take a full-time person to care for the cemetery and that the town doesn’t have those kinds of funds.

So weekly, he visits the place where his loved ones rest.

“I’m 73 years old, so I don’t know who’s going to do it after I’m dead and gone. But as long as I’m alive, I’m going to do it.”