Fossers, a job to be done

SinedAll 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 history of the Pla cemeteries would be a long one to tell, beginning with burials within the villages, next to the churches, and later moving them to the outskirts. Heritage sites with tombs and spaces that commemorate the great figures of the Pla de Mallorca. Places of fear, mystery, or rage. Places of death and murder.

Also of people who dedicated their lives to it, the gravediggers of the Pla de Mallorca. So, in these busy days leading up to All Saints' Day, we spoke with some of those who were once "owners" of the cemetery.

Andreu Nicolau Encontrado 'Cudem'

Master AndreuLet's take care of each otherHe was born in the town of Porreres in 1940. As a young man, he worked as a baker and stonemason. He traveled to different places in Mallorca until he returned to his hometown to take charge of the municipal cemetery in 1985.

He explains how he acquired the relief of the old gravedigger, the owner TomeuSale"Things weren't like they are now. When I started working at the cemetery, in some graves we buried the dead on top of the bones of the previous deceased. There were people who couldn't afford certain types of burials." "Shortly after I started, the mayor, Pep (Roig) deSound in AmatHe talked about fixing it for health reasons, and we never did it again."

Master Andreu recalls that "at first, when they brought in the refrigerated storage unit, many neighbors didn't want to put their relatives in there. They felt it wasn't a suitable place to lay their loved ones."

"Burying children and young people was the worst of all. It was a painful experience. I just longed to be done; I worked harder than with the others." He recounts the most difficult moments he has experienced in a cemetery. But there are also touching moments. "I remember a young man who died, and his father came to ask me if they could put a basketball inside the coffin... and they did."

He also remembers All Saints' Day as a very busy day. "I especially remember one year when the councilwoman who looked after the cemetery came. It was a year when there were quite a few deaths, and she said to me: 'Andrés, you should remove those weeds from inside the boats at the entrance.' I told her: 'I have two here to bury and another one that I've heard about, though not exactly what's been said, around town.'"

Ultimately, what he's clear about is that "without papers, I couldn't do anything." "There were some funeral homes from outside the town that would bring someone to be buried here and they'd say to me, 'Hey, hey, take this!' And I'd tell them, 'Oh, oh, without papers I'm not taking anything!'"

Gabriel Mayol Cerdà 'Llobet'

Gabriel Mayol Cerdà was born in Montuïri in 1965. He has now been working at the Campana municipal cemetery for 30 years. Initially, he worked in maintenance, as the village stonemasons were still responsible for burials. Now, with the cemetery managed by Parc de l'Auba in Biel, he is in charge.

"At first, I didn't do everything; there were the local stonemasons who acted as gravediggers. It was in 2012, when the cemetery was given to the company Parc de l'Auba, that I joined.

Since then, we've been in charge of the grounds, the maintenance, family arrangements, and the upkeep of the funeral home."

If we ask him how his work has changed over the last 30 years, he explains that "here, to be honest, it hasn't changed much, because this cemetery is very old and the work is complicated. In the old days, people were buried directly in the ground; now, in the two newer expansions of the cemetery, they are buried directly inside the tomb; we put the lid on right away. This makes everything faster and more practical. It was seven or eight years after I started. At first, there was nothing: we had a room with industrial refrigeration equipment. But when it broke down, we decided to put in a burial mound, a refrigerated chamber where the deceased can stay for up to six days without any problem."

As in the case Andreu had told us aboutLet's take care of each otherBiel Mayol also explains that "there were people who didn't want to leave the deceased behind." "They must think that before they had them at home, and they found it hard to accept that, just a few hours after dying, they already had to be taken inside this chamber." Some people asked me, 'What if they wake up?' I told them, 'Don't worry, they're quite dead.' It was mostly the older people who didn't want to understand; for them, the idea of putting them inside a machine was very difficult." Regarding the "complicated" burials, Mayol recalls, "especially those of very large people... We had to carry them by weight. At first, we didn't have the wheelbarrows or the equipment we have now, and we had to carry them between two of us to the grave... and it was very hard. Now it's different."

Gravediggers are people too, and they're no strangers to grief. If we ask him about those most difficult moments, Mayol is clear. "Unfortunately, those involving young children. Here at the cemetery, we have newborns and children as young as two or six years old… And also young people in their twenties or twenties.

These have affected me deeply, because I knew many of them, not because they were family, but because I knew their families, the people from the town. My father carried it within him, but these young people have touched me deeply, because you experience it from the outside, with a sense of helplessness."

He adds: "In accident cases, it's very hard to talk to the family. You have to be very patient: first the Civil Guard goes, they tell you what happened, and then we go. You have to act almost like a psychologist. You can't just go suddenly; you have to wait until you can react in a bad way."

Pedro Fontirroig Vallcaneras 'Xuto'

In Lloret de Vistalegre, if there's a versatile person in the municipal brigade, it's Pedro.Chuto (Lloret, 1961). A few years ago, he was in charge of the municipal cemetery. It was a task he carried out in the afternoons with another person. They were both responsible for managing the cemetery: "maintenance, burials, cleaning, everything. Before, everything was more manual: we dug the graves, placed the headstones, burned the wooden remains…".

"Things were very different back then. There weren't proper graves like there are now; many were just graves in the ground or old niches. There weren't any specialized companies: we did everything ourselves."

"All Saints' Day was the busiest time of year. We had to get everything ready. We cleaned the walls and paths, placed flowers, lit candles, prepared the music for Mass, set the tables… everything. We dedicated ourselves completely to making sure everything was perfect for that day."

Pedro Fontirroig arrived at the cemetery at a time when cemeteries weren't given much attention. "I've seen many things over the years. Once, while opening a grave for a new burial, we found ancient remains, from a burial over a hundred years old." Also, and this only happened to me once, I found a mummified body. It was intact… it was a nun."

Among the most difficult moments, like the rest of the gravediggers in Pla, PedroChutoHe agrees: "The funerals of young people or people known in the town are what hurt us the most. I especially remember a young man of about twelve or thirteen years old; that time it impressed me a lot, because there were many people and it was a very sad case."

Fontirroig observes how the work of those years in the small cemetery clinging to the Lloret Commune has changed considerably. He adds, "I have to say that at the time, despite the limitations, we did it with great dedication and commitment."

Rafael Real Sabater 'Monoll'

I love Rafael, the sinner.MonolloHe is 85 years old. He worked as a foreman and still remembers when they would put ten 50-kilo sacks of cement on his back. For years he was in charge of the maintenance, burials, and exhumations at the Sineu cemetery.

"People used to be buried in the Fossar. I still remember holes two meters deep. But then they started filling it with rubble to level it. All the carts—because there were still carts back then—took them there to dump the rubble." That's how Rafael remembers it.Monollothat old moat of Sineu.

Real started handling burials and exhumations at a young age. "I must have been fifteen. My father already worked there, but his legs were bad, so he taught me. It must have been around 1965 or 1966." And until just two days ago, as they say… "I was still exhuming bodies until I was 75. I've exhumed hundreds."

"Back then, everything was very different. There were no cars, no lighting like there is now. You have to remember that we always did the burials at night, after taking the deceased to the funeral. We used a carbide lamp. There was no electricity!"

"In Sineu we had,And we have, the wagon of the dead. It was made by a carpenter from Sineu, master PepBreadmaker,who was also mayor, one of the best mayors we've ever had. When the hearse left for the cemetery, everyone followed behind, all the way to a very large fig tree we call "the fig tree of the dead." There, everyone stopped, priests and all. They only followed the family and the hearse. Once the coffin was lowered, the family would leave, and I would stay behind with the carbide lamp and... until it was over."

"In the cemetery there's a large, beautiful stone with a hole where you put your head; that's where the autopsies were done. First a doctor from Inca would come, and then his daughter would come and tell me, 'Cut here, cut there.'

"Many young people have died, and others in accidents. When a young person dies, it always makes a bigger impact. But that's life, you have to do your job. You feel as much grief as the rest of the town, but you have to do it, there's no other way."

"There's a gentleman, and there's a gentleman, there's a gentleman, there's a gentleman, there's a gentleman, and there's a gentleman, Don, and Don wanted to be buried in the ground. I dug a hole two meters long and one meter wide, and I'll bury him in it."