Marietta landscaper a cut above the rest to veteran in need
MARIETTA — Donna Rowley has never considered herself lucky. Certainly with recent dual cancer diagnoses for Donna and her husband, Gilbert “Gib” Rowley, a little good news was certainly in order.
Enter Dustin Huck, whose name just so happens to rhyme with luck.
“We are so thankful for him,” Donna said this week as she tried to fend off the tears that so naturally wanted to flow. Gib, a veteran of the Army National Guard, sat silent since the cancer has taken his voice box. But the emotion was evident on his face as well as he placed his arm around his wife on a bench in the couple’s backyard on Muskingum Drive. Gib even tried to pull a few weeds from a flower bed.
The pair were watching Huck work as he mowed their lawn, with an eye also on the Muskingum River and a view of their former place of employment in the background.
“We’ve been together 40 years. We both retired from RJF,” Donna said, joking, “My brother told me once, don’t get your honey where you get your money.”
The Rowleys and Huck didn’t know each other before April of this year. That’s when Huck advertised a contest on the Facebook page for his business, Cutting Edge Landscapes. He wanted to pay back a veteran or current armed forces member for their “commitment and sacrifice” to the country that he loves.
“I think we started it about March 24 and got 121 likes, 37 shares and 61 comments. The Rowleys were chosen on April 8,” he said.
Huck has a degree in Engineering Technology and Management from Ohio University but decided he enjoyed being outdoors too much to not make a career of it.
“I’ve been doing this since I was in eighth grade, when my parents used to drive me to people’s houses,” said the 28-year-old, soon-to-be new dad.
The idea for a contest came to him after attending an expo where another business offered a promotion to provide services to veterans. The Facebook post offered free lawn services for a year.
“It was the first time I ever entered a contest and I won,” Donna said. “I thought it was just a gimmick but I thought I would enter Gib’s name. Two weeks later he called us. I told Dustin, you don’t know what this means to us.”
What it means is a summer free from worrying about the yard work and more time enjoying each other. Doctors have given Gib only four or five more months to live. His throat cancer has spread and treatments are no longer working. Donna had part of her right lung removed due to lung cancer and it has spread to her left.
“I don’t think we’ll be here at Christmas,” she said, finally unable to control the tears.
Gib took a pen and paper and wrote that he was in the National Guard for “23 years, five months and 18 days.” His duty saw him called to Honduras to help during flooding and took him away most summers for at least a couple weeks.
“The first week was fine but by the second week I missed him,” Donna said.
Donna lost her son, Scott Hines, to cancer in 2013. One son, Steve, has been helping to prepare the family camp site in Waverly, W.Va., even though he lives in North Carolina. Another son in Albuquerque may move back to the area to help his mom and stepdad. This summer will be spent camping and boating, as much as their energy will allow.
But the help from Dustin Huck, who sat and listened to Donna share the couple’s story Thursday, has made all the difference.
“I just do mowing and some trimming but listening to them really makes me want to do this again,” Huck said, adding that he would even offer his services free of charge to the Rowleys next year.
Donna Rowley let out a sigh and her husband squeezed her shoulder.
“Dustin is just a good young person. He deserves to be recognized because there are so few good people left in this world,” she said.
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The Dustin Huck File
* Age: 28
* Owner: Cutting Edge Landscapes, 100 Flintwood Drive
* Family: Wife, Mary Beth; one child on the way
* Education: Marietta High School graduate; Bachelor of science from Ohio University in Engineering Technology and Management
* Services: Lawn mowing, re-mulching, aeration, snow removal, deicing
* Service area: Marietta, Reno, Harmar Hill, Oak Grove, Devola
* Contact: cuttingedgemov.com or 740-516-5608