At a secluded part of the Manila North Cemetery, the former mausoleum of the parents of Dr. Jose Rizal provides shelter to a 68-year-old woman who has spent more than half of her life living there as a grave caretaker.
Corazon Ventura has been living in the cemetery since she was 20. Since then, she has been keeping the graves of several families clean, aside from that of Rizal’s parents.
The remains of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso were housed in that mausoleum for decades before being transferred to their hometown in Calamba, Laguna.
Originally, it was Ventura’s grandmother who maintained the mausoleum, but Corazon took over after her death.
According to her, Rizal’s relatives allowed her to live there since the remains of Rizal’s parents had already been transferred. Ventura, who used to live and work in Bulacan, moved into the cemetery after marrying her husband, whose family also took care of graves for a living. The cemetery was also a witness to the family she and her husband built, as they raised six children, who also remained with them. She said her husband’s construction job was not enough to allow them to live elsewhere.
‘Though it’s hard, we were forced to live here until now. This is where my children grew up and raised their own families,’ she said in Filipino.
At her age, she said her hope was for her children to experience life outside the cemetery.
‘I am already old, but my children are working hard to experience living in their own homes. Of course, who does not want to live outside [the cemetery]?’ she said. Ventura takes care of the graves of 15 families every year, with her income from different graves varying. Her children help her with their everyday expenses.
Just a few steps away from the old mausoleum of Rizal’s parents, Ventura showed the mausoleum of the family of Rizal’s sister, Saturnina Rizal Hidalgo. During her walkthrough on Saturday, Nov. 1, she was arranging the flowers to put on the graves.
According to her, she does not have a hard time doing her work as the living descendants treat her kindly.