A Kannapolis woman found her husband’s body in the backyard of her parents’ home on Old Beatty Ford Road on Thursday evening.

Rocky Wayne Hensley died after he was run over by a large tractor mower.

“I have such a comfort knowing that the last words I said to him were ‘I love you,’ ” Julie Hensley said this morning.

“We had a bond that just couldn’t be broken. I don’t know what I am going to do without him.”

The couple had been married almost 18 years.

Rocky Hensley, of Edinburg Road, Kannapolis, was mowing his in-laws’ yard when he either fell or jumped off his tractor, Rowan County Sheriff’s Department Lt. John Sifford said.

“We’re not sure if he felt the tractor was going to turn over and he jumped off or if he just fell off,” Sifford said.

The rear wheel of the tractor and the mower it was pulling ran over him.

“My parents are elderly,” Julie Hensley said. “Rocky was always a wonderful person to help them around the house and mow their yard.

“I was supposed to meet him there after work. When I got home, I saw him on the backside of the property on the tractor,” she said.

“Later on, my mother told me ‘Dinner’s ready, go get Rocky to eat’ So, I went out there, and I could kind of hear the tractor like it was running away.

“I found the tractor down in the woods,and I saw what was left of him on the hill,” she said.

Julie Morgan Hensley paused.

“I just need all the people that are concerned for me and that care for me to pray so that I can block that memory from my mind and remember him how he looked when he left for work that morning,” she said.

She and her husband had known each other since the eighth grade.

“He was a very special man, very caring and compassionate. He had a real strong bond with my father (Hoyle Morgan) through his illness,” she said.

The couple started dating when Julie was a sophomore in college. “I came home for Christmas break, and he called me out of the blue. He said ‘I’d like to see you while you’re home for Christmas.’ I had just graduated college, we were both 24, when we got married.

“His mother died that year in July from cancer, and we were married October 30th,” she said. “He was my right hand.”

“I know that God made things happen in a particular order for a reason. My dad’s younger brother, Wayne Morgan, and my aunt, Susan, happened to be at the house at the time. It was like God had planned for them to be there, because he knew we would need them.”

Julie said prayers, friends and family will help her get through this tragedy.

“I have a very strong faith, and I am going to need that.”