This almost 92-year-old man visits the San Mauro cemetery every day, in Pontevedra. There, his wife, Eladina, with whom he was married for 54 years, has been buried since 2014. He spends about half an hour every day sitting in front of the grave in where his remains restThe story of Manuel Méndez is tender. Because it’s been almost nine years, every day, without missing your appointment. With cold, rain or wind. “It’s the same, I come the same,” he says. He always shows up. At almost 92 years old, he visits the San Mauro cemetery in Pontevedra every day. His wife is buried there. Her name was Eladina and she passed away in 2014, at the age of 82, after her memories gradually faded due to Alzheimer’s. Since death separated them, Manuel goes to that cemetery every day. Only the pandemic prevented him from leaving home to go to his daily appointment. For a time he went alone. Now, with a visual problem, it is his daughter Lola who accompanies him daily. “It is that 54 years of marriage and another 10 more of boyfriends go a long way,” says her daughter. She is the one who always goes to look for him at home, because Manuel lives alone, and who accompanies him on his daily walk to the cemetery. “When I come from work, I go to her house, we do our homework, then we come here and when we finish we go to have our little coffee,” she says. On this All Saints’ Day, as they always do, father and daughter enter the graveyard together from the ganchete. Manuel, despite the fact that he does not see very well, does it with an impetus that many young people would like. Manuel and his daughter Lola walking through the cemetery.NIUS “Today is just another day for us, it’s not special, because it’s something we do every day. For me it is one more task, like doing things around the house or preparing food,” she says. In a folding chair, sitting in front of his niche After negotiating several flights of stairs and corridors of niches, Manuel and Lola finally reach the place where Eladina rests. There, there are always fresh flowers. “We don’t bring them every day, only when they are bad,” the man points out. Manuel sits in a folding chair next to his grave. “As long as I live, I will come every day and when I die I will come here,” he says, pointing to the pantheon where his wife rests. Manuel, blowing a kiss to the niche. NIUSA Every day, he spends about half an hour there. “It depends on the weather because, as you can see, we don’t have anywhere to shelter here,” says Lola. During the time he spends sitting, Manuel spends part of the time in silence. Perhaps thinking of the 64 years he spent with Eladina, with whom he had nine children. When asked why he goes to the cemetery every day, this endearing grandfather in a beret replies: “It’s a hobby I have.” He calls mania what others call love.