The Son Valentí cemetery in Palma inaugurated this Monday the Columbarium of Dignity, a space intended to house the remains of 225 victims of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. The columbarium is presided over by the epitaph 'Here rest victims of the Civil War and the Dictatorship'. During the solemn inauguration ceremony, the archaeologist and director of the various exhumation projects for missing repressed people in Mallorca, Xesc Busquets, explained that the columbarium houses the remains of "225 people who for too long remained in the pits of oblivion".

The latest problems and criticisms made public by users who have not been able to bury their loved ones, due to security problems, in family tombs, have led the City Council to now face the urgent need to reform the old part of the Son Coletes municipal cemetery, in Manacor. And it is that although the space, redeveloped between 1953 and 1957 after an initial use during the plague, has been in a state of evident degradation for years due to the passage of time and lack of maintenance, it has not been until recent weeks that the Consistory has decided to get down to business.

The latest problems and criticisms made public by users who have not been able to bury their loved ones, due to security issues, in family tombs, have led the City Council to now face the urgent need to reform the old part of the Son Coletes municipal cemetery in Manacor. Although the space, redeveloped between 1953 and 1957 after its initial use during the plague, has been in a state of evident degradation for years due to the passage of time and lack of maintenance, it is only in recent weeks that the Council has decided to take action.

A comprehensive and million-dollar renovation. This is what the Manacor City Council announced this Tuesday during the presentation of the Action and Management Plan for the Son Coletes municipal cemetery, an initiative that combines urban planning actions, infrastructure investments, and a profound administrative modernization with the aim of guaranteeing the safety, conservation, and correct management of an essential public facility for the municipality.

We picked up my godmother and headed straight up to the cemetery. All Saints' Day had passed days ago. The explosion of flowers now looks more like a still-life painting, reminding us that we're already late. However, if it weren't for my godmother, neither my mother nor I would ever visit that place. I wonder if, when she can no longer do it, someone will take over. If it were up to me, I wouldn't even know how to find the entrance gate to drive in, so it's she who, every now and then, guides me: "No, honey, go further ahead. It's a very big gate, you'll see it." To find the blog where our relatives are buried, I also need her directions: "The second street on the left." We parked the car and organized ourselves to decide who would visit first. It never ceases to amaze me how practicality intrudes in moments when you should seemingly be guided by instinct or impulsiveness. It's as if the attempt to be sensible numbs our insides a little.

All Saints' Day is often a time when we turn our attention to cemeteries, spaces we too often associate with sadness, remembrance, emotion, and sorrow. Yet, there are also those who find comfort and solace there. Cemeteries are also places where people work daily, sharing in the grief and hardships of families in our communities.

The Ses Salines City Council will seek a legal formula to cover the costs of relocating the exhumed remains from the niches between numbers 49 and 198, an area at risk of collapse. Mayor Guillem Mas told ARA Baleares that this possibility will be discussed with the City Council's technical services, "and if they say it can be done," they will cover the costs, which are currently being paid by the families of the deceased.

The loss of a child, before or shortly after birth, is a painful and often silenced experience. To help families cope with this grief, Manacor City Council has created a space for perinatal, gestational, and neonatal grief in the Son Coletes Municipal Cemetery. This space is designed for all those who have experienced this reality and need a physical reference point to provide the necessary calm.

The niches next to the chapel in the Ses Salines cemetery, specifically those from numbers 49 to 198, must be emptied because they are at risk of collapse, sources from the Salines Town Council explained to ARA Baleares. The area is currently shored up, but work cannot begin until all the remains in these niches have been exhumed.