Vanesa Lopez
08/24/2020 - 13:47
- Clarín.com
- Society
Every week, religiously, Ana Sánchez (57) went to the Chacarita cemetery to greet her partner. But the ritual was interrupted for five months , due to restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This Monday morning, when the visits to the cemeteries of the City - Chacarita, Flores and Recoleta - were again enabled - the long-awaited reunion took place.
Ana walks up to the authorized entrance, by Jorge Newbery at 4700. It was a long journey from her home in the Buenos Aires town of Grand Bourg. And she's visibly agitated, because she has a problem with her lungs.
Controls at the entrance to the cemetery. Photo Maxi Failla.
“These five months I felt anguish . He recently committed suicide, he had a psychiatric problem. And we had a bad time ”, the woman introduces herself.
She is accompanied by her daughter, Daniela Romero (19), with two bouquets of flowers in her left hand. " I missed him a lot, " agrees the girl who is not talking to her father, or expressing herself with tears. Although he knows that now - after almost half a year away - he is going to start crying .
The young woman has just graduated from modeling. “Thank God we got her out of the depression she was in. The modeling served a bit to get out of the anguish. Sometimes we come and tell her father about it. We appreciate. Being with her is a way of relief ”, says Ana.
The sale of flowers, a business that was reactivated thanks to the opening. Photo Maxi Failla.
Jorge Miguel Romero took his own life on May 7, 2018. His remains are on land, near the crematorium area. "We have to walk there," sigh mother and daughter, knowing the distances in the largest cemetery in the City, with an area of 95 hectares.
"Tomorrow, if God helps, we will see if we can put it in a niche," aspires the woman, who until now had no other option due to economic factors.
Regarding the five months in which the doors were closed for visits, more specifically 157 days -since the mandatory social isolation was ordered- Ana will say that it was “a long time ” and that “they could have opened it a little earlier”.
Ana and Daniela arrive from the Buenos Aires town of Grand Bourg. Photo Maxi Failla.
“Some take care on the one hand and others neglect themselves on the other. Where I live is 'viva la pepa'. The quarantine never existed . They chop, sell alcohol and drugs. Nobody cares about anything. And they wouldn't let me come here, to the cemetery, ”the woman compares.
Although she was unable to visit Jorge, she never stopped feeling close to him. “I feel like he's not down there. They are my things. For me he is alive . And well, each one carries the pain in a different way ”, says who was his partner for 20 years.
Great attendance at the reopening of the Chacarita cemetery. Photo Maxi Failla.
"They'll say I'm crazy," she jokes about some conversations, like the one she had with the man on the way to the cemetery. "Ay Jorgito, why are you doing this to me? Why did you make me walk so much? It's okay that I'm fat, but hey ”, she laughs.
There are three female generations who remember him. Because Daniela and Ana are joined by Jorge's mother, 84, who no longer has children. The two he had now rest together, in Chacarita. And last week, when she found out that the cemetery was going to reopen, the woman began to cry.
Visiting protocols
The City once again enabled visits to the Chacarita, Flores and Recoleta cemeteries, under some conditions:
* The opening will be from Monday to Sunday, including holidays, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
* Groups of two people can enter and the maximum stay will be one hour.
* Visitors may enter with their vehicles and should go directly to the parking lot corresponding to the area to visit.
* At the time of entering the cemetery, the personnel in charge of security will take the temperature of each visitor.
* The use of face masks and social distance is mandatory at all times.
* Tourist or recreational visits are not allowed.
The entrance for burials is by Jorge Newbery at 4600. Maxi Failla photo.
In the case of deaths, the current protocol continues:
* They can accompany up to five designated persons and a religious minister of any creed.
* The accompaniment is carried out directly to the burial or cremation sector; The use of masks and compliance with the rules of social distancing is mandatory.
GS