Rocky Abalsamo was already 84 years old when the Boston Globe found him at St. Joseph Cemetery in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.
He walked from his apartment in Jamaica Plain every morning. He unfolded a chair, took out photos of his wife Julia, and stayed there until the gates closed. In the heat, in the rain, in the cold. According to the outlet, he ate and drank very little during those hours so he wouldn’t have to leave.
Julia had died in 1993 from complications following heart surgery, after 55 years together. They met as teenagers in a café in Buenos Aires: with his back turned, he heard her talking with her close friends about the soul, life, and kindness, and decided he had to meet her. They shared their first kiss on September 16, 1937. Rocky celebrated that date every year.
Before going home, he scattered crumbs over the grave so the squirrels would keep him company through the night. And he always carried a photo of her with a note written on the back: “Today heaven smiles on me… with all my love, Julita”.
“She is part of me, so here I am whole”, he told the reporter in 2000.
After his story spread, strangers began leaving blankets and decorations beside the grave. He kept up his daily visits until 2005 and continued going regularly. Rocky died on January 22, 2014, at the age of 97. He asked for the left side of the plot because it was “his side”, and he was buried beside his beloved Julia.
