For 21 years, Maria Trindade da Silva, 64, has lived in a house inside the Parque da Saudade Cemetery, in Iguatu, in the interior of Ceará. She moved in 2002 with her husband, Francisco de Assis Vieira Sobral, who was a gravedigger. Now widowed for three months, she is experiencing financial problems that prevent her from leaving the place to live with her family in another state.
“I’ve lived here for 21 years inside this cemetery. I lived with my husband and he ended up getting sick. The problem got worse. He ended up passing away and I was left alone. I live on donations and I want to live with my daughter in Rio Grande do Norte. My life was turned upside down,” the woman told G1.
She says that, at first, she was afraid to sleep in the cemetery, for fear that the souls might “pull her feet”.
“I thought I wasn’t going to sleep at night. I imagined that souls were coming to pull my feet. But it never happened, and I never saw anything that haunted me. I walk here at all hours of the night and it’s just dark. But I’m not afraid of who died, I’m afraid of who’s alive,” Maria explained.
Despite her husband’s death, Maria is not completely alone in the area: she has the company of the cats and dogs abandoned in the cemetery, which together number more than 100.
The house is not in the middle of the cemetery – in fact, it is located facing the street, with a gate at the back, which gives access to the graves.
After 21 years, the couple was able to adapt to the routine of the unusual address. However, the process of living in the cemetery was not without difficulties, such as the constant presence of insects and crabeater spiders.
“They come out of the graves, and I’m allergic. I got a very bad allergy, and ended up moving to another house for a while. But we came back again. We got used to it. Today, it’s different, because he [her husband] was the only person I had in my life,” she said.
Maria
intends to move to São Miguel, in Rio Grande do Norte, to live with her daughter. As she has no source of income, she relies on the help of her family to carry out the move.
Francisco was employed by a company that manages the cemetery under a public concession regime, so Maria tried to receive the pension after her husband’s death. However, she discovered that in the system he is not registered as a taxpayer.
Currently, she lives on donations from people who live in the region and know her story.
In a statement, the company in which Francisco worked says that it paid the severance to the family members and that it provided funeral assistance at no cost to the family. In addition, he added that he offered the necessary help for Mary’s move to St. Michael.
Maria refutes the statement, and claims that she received only R$ 500 for all the years of her husband’s contribution.
“During the day, I go about my life, but when night comes, loneliness, sadness and isolation take over me,” the woman said.
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