In flip-flops, basic work pants and a grey t-shirt, Moises da Silva, 44, led the first visitors to block 18, left side, row 11, area 4 of the Petropolis Municipal Cemetery, the city’s “old cemetery.”
That is the address of the final resting place of Grandmaster Helio Gracie (1913-2009), buried yesterday at 4:55pm, after a pulmonary infection (pneumonia) resulting in the professor’s death, by multiple organ failure.
The ceremony was simple, and held punctually, as the master so liked things to be. And “without any debauchery,” precisely as the professor requested. Led by son Royce, wearing sunglasses, around 70 people, among them family members, students and admirers, clapped their hands in applause one last time for the 95-year-old grandmaster. Besides them, a friendly black mutt followed the procession.
Watch the video of the professor’s farewell
“There was no speech or anything, it was quick. And there were a lot of people, and I saw some people were really emotionally affected,” said undertaker Moises, an observer, while arranging two wreaths of flowers, sent by senator Arthur Virgilio Neto and the directors of Padre Antonio Vieira high school. Using the ropes as a lever, the 62kg employee nimbly lowered the grandmaster’s body. “His son put a black belt on it, we lowered the coffin and that was that. He was the number one in fighting. He beat everyone, didn’t he? It was beautiful. But as an employee I can’t get emotional. Emotion gets in the way of the work.”
The little cemetery, where such famous figures as Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, singers and actors from TV (and even soccer referee Jorge “Margarida” Emiliano) are buried, became the final home for the toughest Brazilian ever to exist.
Interviewed by GRACIEMAG in 2005, the brilliant professor responded to Raphael Nogueira’s question, “Are you afraid to die?”
“Death? [Short chuckle from Master Helio]. Why be afraid of death? I need nothing, have nothing, want nothing. I think it’s silly someone should be afraid to die. They should be afraid to be born. As I’ve already said to my kids, when I die I want there to be a party. No booze, no debauchery. But I want a party with music, food… I don’t know if you believe in reincarnation, but all of us go and come back until the day we no longer need to come back. My brother Carlos would say that someone will only stop coming back to Earth once he becomes a part of the whole. So long as you’re thinking wrong you return to evolve. Hell is right here where we are.”
Rest in peace, Helio Gracie
