O president of the parish council had to go look for the cemetery employee, while residents were alerted to the funeral ceremony through conversations between neighbors, in a town that remains without electricity and telecommunications.
In the parish of Casal dos Bernardos, in Ourém, the first funeral after the although the cemetery was damaged and it was difficult to find the gravedigger.
The lack of communications forces residents to arrange meeting points to arrange restoration work on homes or the removal of trees and, in the case of the president of the parish council, to meet the gravedigger for the funeral that will have to take place this Monday afternoon.
“The parish council takes care of the funerals, of all the bureaucracy with the funeral homes, but I’m not able to find the gravedigger”, lamented Aníbal Pereira, the local mayor.
This is the funeral of a resident who died of natural causes in recent days, and it was not possible to hold the funeral ceremonies previously due to weather conditions and blocked access.
A significant part of the graves in the cemetery in the parish of Casal dos Bernardos, in the municipality of Ourém, district of Santarém, was seriously damaged, especially the large marble and polished granite tombstones.
The cemetery, founded in 1948, is in front of the churchyard of the Church of Santo António and, despite being at a high point, telecommunications are impossible.
Aníbal Pereira and other members of the parish council, unable to establish telephone contacts, have to travel by car to try to find firefighters, teachers, assistants and, in the case of this Monday morning, the gravedigger.
The cemetery employee ended up being located mid-morning, confirming that the funeral was taking place, and the inhabitants were alerted to the ceremony by conversations and messages passed from resident to resident.
Since last week, the telecommunications antenna installed in the parish has not guaranteed communications in the locality, which also lacks electricity supply.
With LUSA
