Resting place

Homelessness has turned some cemeteries into shelters for the living.

Around 205 families were living in makeshift homes at the old Cebu Chinese Cemetery and Ludo Memorial Park in Barangay Carreta, Cebu City until the local government convinced them to relocate in exchange for financial assistance.

Last month, the charity organization Asociacion Benevola de Cebu (ABC) donated P20,000 to P50,000 to each of 170 families that agreed to leave the cemetery, a national daily reported.

The rest agreed to transfer to a temporary relocation site provided by the ABC near the cemetery. They will live there until the city government provides them with social housing.

Meanwhile, a woman in Sydney, Australia recently lost her plot at the Waverley Cemetery.

Dorothy Jackson bought the plot in 1999 but the sales contract was good for only 25 years. The public cemetery offered to extend the expired contract another five years at a cost of $6,000.

Jackson balked at the offer, calling it unfair. Fortunately, the Waverley Council gave her consideration due to her old age. The Council waived the extension fee so the centenarian can retain her memorial plot.

Jackson bought the plot when she was 77 years old. Now, at 102 years old, she has outlived the 25-year term for the burial plot.