David Alexander Dunaway moved to 6347 Northwood in 1998, but now he spends early mornings with hose in hand watering the small live oak trees planted in the parkway on Edgemere between Northwest Highway and Northwood. Neighbor Susan Cox calls him her superhero: “The Waterman.”

Once a week, in the early morning, he stretches the hose from his home to the median and fills gallon jugs of water to nurture the crepe myrtles and live oak trees.

One tree, after a brutal trim, was thought to be lost, but Dunaway continued to water it. He set up stakes to protect it, watered it and now sees new signs of growth. He’s open to neighbors who can suggest a charitable trimmer.

Dunaway’s 19-year-old daughter, a graduate of the Ursuline Academy, tells him she’s going to erect a bench in the median when he dies. “I just put the hoses out there,” he says. “It’s not really that much work.” But small works multiplied by consistency counts.