Alexis Hewitt enrolled in Southern Seminary’s Seminary Wives Institute in 2023. She never set foot on campus. She completed seven courses from home, caring for four young children, and needed only two more to earn her certificate when she died on January 2, 2026. She had turned 32 on Christmas Eve.
Days before she passed, she submitted an assignment on Canvas.
In her coursework over the years, Alexis mentioned her cancer diagnosis in passing references woven into reflections on what she was learning and how she hoped to use it. Faculty engaged with her through the platform without knowing how serious her illness had become. Her assignments gave no indication. She wrote about applying what she was learning in her church. She wrote about hoping, one day, to visit the seminary.
That visit never came. But the work she put in was real, and so was the faith behind it.
“After over a year of fighting stage 4 stomach cancer she lost the battle, but she won the war,” her husband Rusty wrote when he announced her passing. “Jesus has defeated sin, death, and the grave. She is risen with Christ and forever will be with Him.”
In January, Rusty emailed the seminary with the news of Alexis’s passing and asked whether she could receive her certificate posthumously. President R. Albert Mohler Jr. said yes.
“We now have the rare but very precious opportunity to award the certificate in ministry studies to a posthumous graduate,” Mohler said during graduation. “It is our great honor.”
On May 7, Rusty walked across the stage at Southern’s commencement to receive her Certificate in Ministry Studies on her behalf. Rusty studies online at Southern Seminary and serves as associate pastor at Conowingo Baptist Church in Conowingo, Maryland.. Alexis’s parents, Greg and Cindy Roth, attended as well.
“I now treasure the interactions I had with Alexis Hewitt over Canvas and regret that I never had
the privilege to meet her,” said Mary Mohler, Director of the Seminary Wives Institute. “She was
a diligent student who was working hard to complete every class she could, even while being
treated for cancer.”
Along with the entire seminary community, Mohler continues to remember the Hewitt family’s
faithfulness and offers prayers on their behalf. “I’m so glad I did get to meet Rusty and their four precious children, as well as Alexis’s parents and in-laws, who all made the trip to Louisville for graduation,” Mohler said. “I will never forget the poignant moment when Rusty received Alexis‘s certificate. This entire family is modeling for us how to grieve as those whose hope is in Christ alone. We will continue to pray for them!”
Reflecting on their marriage this spring, Rusty described 2025, Alexis’s final year, as a year defined by love and sacrifice.
“I never felt more love for Alexis or from Alexis more than I did last year,” he wrote. “The vacancy of her in my life at times seems insurmountable. A life without her feels impossible.”
But for Rusty, grief and hope are not opposites.
“I know God. I know His promises. I know His character. And I knew my wife’s faith in God was certain. As I grieve the loss of my Alexis, I also rejoice knowing she is at perfect peace with Jesus.”