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His name is Pepe Jordana, his mother died last week of coronavirus - "although she was wonderful, she was a volunteer in a nursing home, imagine" - and, sadly, she gave her a patatús when, soon after, the bill came from the funeral home.

"They started with that if the coffin, that I was not even going to see it because it was cremated, it had to be of I do not know what characteristics, and that later it was necessary to pay I do not know what protections for the workers, and to maintain it I do not know how many days in the cameras refrigerators, due to the collapse ... All unprovable things, that you were never going to see, and 500 turkeys for each of them, zaca, zaca, zaca . They justified everything in the coronavirus security measures, in the treatment of the bodies in this situation, but I said to myself: 'What's going on, this can't be.' "

So Pepe signed for Parcesa, manager of the Tres Cantos cemetery, to do all that with his mother's corpse - "I signed because there was no advance payment" - but then went to Change.org, the collection website of signatures to lobby for various reasons , and opened a petition.

He titled it 'Dying of coronavirus is more expensive. Let the State intervene! ', And he denounced the situation: they asked him for 5,000 "eurazos that my mother did not have", plus 21% VAT and a lot of concepts (watertight coffins for example) that showed that, "in addition to some bodies are treated in one way and others in another ", dying at such a time was" more expensive than usual ", and that" there are people doing business with this, "he explains to EL MUNDO.

Luckily, the government has taken it seriously: there cannot be, in such a situation, first, second and third deaths.

Pepe Jordana

The collection of signatures was quickly a success (almost 170,000 in just three days) and this Monday the public authorities were aware of their claim and of some other relatives of the deceased: the Government prohibited funeral homes from raising prices and forced them to keep those in force last March 14, when the state of alarm began . "Thankfully they have been taken seriously: there cannot be, in such a situation, first, second and third deaths," he claims.

"She was a public fighter"

Pepe Jordana's mother, 44, suffered 10 days at her home in Madrid, "without us getting 112 to listen to us," he says. "And that she had been a public fighter all her life. She had an enormous vitality and had always turned it to the benefit of everyone . Before, in those affected by rapeseed, also with Bosnian refugees, with UNHCR."

When she got sick, "we kept calling 112 and 061 for 10 days, with no answer. I actually had to go to the outpatient clinic to fetch a doctor . When he saw her, he asked for an ambulance, which took six hours to come." From La Paz they refer the woman to Cantoblanco, "to a moridero, because they already saw that they couldn't do anything with her . " The death occurs soon after. And Jordna receives a day later the communication, including invoice, from the funeral services company.

"They tell me everything they need, and of course, you start to mistrust. It is an expense that you will only make once or twice in life, and depending on how you are the same or do not pay close attention to it. That seemed so unfair to me . that they needed 500 euros for any concept, and my mother was so battling , that I said: why don't I give the fight? And I opened the petition for signatures ".

Now, once the Government has taken action on the matter, he explains: "I have investigated a bit and it turns out that if you do it for the public, it usually costs 3,000 euros plus VAT, but if you do it privately it is 4,000 more VAT . It seems like a lot of money and it's only fair that we know what is done with the bodies of loved ones, and why, "he concludes. "It is a small tribute to my mother." This newspaper has contacted Parcesa, but has not yet received a response.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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