Apart from a distant nephew and a few caretakers, a local Air Force veteran might have left this world alone. But a group of people who didn't know him in life wanted to honor him in death.

Time waits for no man, even for those who have made sacrifices few others could fathom.

"Thou only are immortal, the maker and creator of mankind," said the Virginia Veteran's Care Center Chaplain Bob Brody in the Blue Ridge Memorial Cemetery. "And we are mortal formed by the Earth and to Earth shall we return."

Last week, time on earth came to an end for Air Force Veteran Wyatt "Tommy" Burnette Jr., a 77-year-old resident of the Virginia Veterans Care Center.

His obituary states Burnette joined the United States Air Force, where he served from 1963–1967. Tommy was an artist and loved to draw.

He left quietly from life, but honorably into death.

"It's a duty, just to do a service for these veterans that passed away," said Shawn O'Neill. "I would hope that one day when my time comes the same would be done for me."

O'Neill worried Burnette might leave this world alone. He rallied Roanoke's Disabled Veterans Honor Guard to see to it he didn't.

And he invited other local military, active and retired, to pay their respects alongside one living relative who sat in awe of the crowd.

"I told that to a few people, that him watching us, he would be happy," said Burnette's nephew, David Elgin - one of two of Burnette's living relatives, and the only one to attend his funeral.

“Driving up, watching everybody come up it was, it was more than we ever thought or asked for," siad Elgin's wife Debbie. "We were very blessed to have everybody here today.”

Burnette's was one of more than 200 funerals O'Neill has personally attended to, with hundreds more to come.

“It takes a toll, to see the family get upset. To be solemn for someone that you didn’t know personally," O'Neill said. "It takes a toll, but it’s something that we gladly do.”

Time waits for no man. But there are some among us who use the time they have left in the service of others.