Resting place

MANILA — The cemetery is supposed to be a resting place for the dead. Balanga City, Bataan resident Lilia Angeles best shows this through the mausoleum of her departed son, Jayson, at the Eternal Shrine Memorial Park.

To the outside observer, Jayson’s mausoleum looks ordinary. But inside, his tomb is designed to look like a wide bed. The interior also looks like a bedroom complete with a sofa, curtained glass sliding door, a cabinet, decorative items, including toys, a comfort room and a landscaped yard.

Explaining the motif, the mother said, “I want it to be beautiful and neat so that even in his life after death, he can still feel our love and support in all things.”

Jayson, the second to the eldest of three children of Angeles, died at 27, three days before his 28th birthday on 13 December 2009. He suffered chest pain before going into a coma, according to his mother.

While his soul may be resting comfortably in his “bedroom,” some homeless people, including families of grave caretakers, have also made the cemetery their home for many years. They built shanties over or beside tombs or lived inside mausoleums. In their mini houses, they sleep as soundly as the lifeless ones underneath them.

Unlike the entombed, however, squatters don’t have the permanent luxury of resting in peace. That’s what happened to dozens of families and individuals who have turned the Manila North Cemetery their home address. On 11 October, a demolition crew from Manila City Hall dismantled their makeshift houses as part of a cemetery cleanup for Undas.

The displaced informal settlers inside the cemetery may have to live somewhere else outside the domain of the dead for now. They can always return and become permanent residents though when it’s finally their time.