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BY RESEL JOY TIANERO
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HAVE you ever imagined being in a cemetery all your life?
This is the case of 44-year-old Maron Soriano of Barangay Tanza Esperanza, Iloilo City.
A grave cleaner at the Tanza public cemetery — the biggest public cemetery in the city — Soriano just gives living in a place perceived to be filled with grief and sorrow a shrug. All he thinks is how to survive with his wife and two children, Marjie and Denmark.
Soriano says he was born, grew up and had a family of his own in Tanza Esperanza. But how exactly one settles in a neighborhood of the dead?
“Daw normal man lang,” he tells this writer when asked how living — and making a living — at the cemetery is like.
“May ara man [time] kis-a nga happy lang, may ara man kis-a nga daw masubo man,” he says. “Subo kon wala (income). Pangita e. Happy kon may income e.”
But this is the home Soriano has chosen for him and his family. Built on top of niches, their abode has bamboo walls and floor, nipa roof, and a tiny kitchen. It is small, but big enough for a family of four.
In it, among other things, are a can of paint, a pair of brushes, a worn-out shirt turned into a rag, and other cleaning tools.
“Kami diri ang naga-maintain (cleanliness) sang mga pantyon,” Soriano says about being a grave cleaner. “May mga suki (regular customers) kami diri,” some of whom pay monthly, others yearly, he says.
Every day Soriano would earn P300 on average, but sometimes he gets less. “Wala man gasantô ang ginakitâ.”
And unfortunately P300, he admits, is not enough for their everyday expenses. This forces him to dabble with construction work.
Has he ever thought of leaving his comfort zone and find work opportunities somewhere else?
“Depende sa sitwasyon kon mahalin kami diri” he says.
Except during All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day when the neighborhood of the dead gets filled by the living — some still grieving, others have already come to terms with their loved ones’ passing — life at the cemetery, says Soriano, can be pretty silent./PN
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