Syracuse, New York — Police officers in Syracuse, New York, were surprised in December to find a 55-year-old woman living among the dead at Oakwood Cemetery. 

The story of how Rhea Holmes came to live in that cemetery started years earlier with the death of her husband, Eddie Holmes. The couple had been married 26 glorious years and were planning to finally buy their dream house.

In October 2020, they put in an offer, and it was accepted. That same day, however, Eddie died suddenly of a heart attack. 

So, instead of buying the home, Holmes took the down payment and spent it on a cemetery plot for her husband, with a bench in front of it for reminiscing.

Unfortunately, living in the past took a real toll on her present. Left with little money and little left to live for, Holmes slipped into depression. She lost her job and got evicted. She was too proud to move into a shelter, so she took up residence at the only place she felt she owned: her husband’s grave.

“This is what I purchased,” Holmes told CBS News.

Beginning in May 2025, she would volunteer at the nearby food pantry during the day, and then quietly slip undetected into the cemetery at night, where she would sleep.

“I assumed that I was going to die there,” Holmes said of the cemetery, but then “along comes an angel.”

In December, a retired officer who works at the cemetery noted Holmes’ presence and contacted police. Syracuse Police Officer Jamie Pastorello responded and became the angel who took Holmes under his wing.

“It was just the right thing to do,” Pastorello said. “And I wasn’t going to let Rhea sleep outside again. A complete turnaround, you know, in 20 days, she went from sleeping on the cold, hard ground in a cemetery, to her own home.”

First, he paid for a hotel room for Holmes. Then he connected her with the president of LeMoyne College, who let Holmes stay on campus while the students were on winter break.

Pastorello also started a crowdfunding campaign and connected Holmes with a nonprofit called A Tiny Home for Good, which rents tiny homes at affordable prices to those in need.

When a tiny home became available, Holmes was able to move in.

Nothing will ever replace her husband Eddie, but the multiple hugs she bestowed upon Pastorello during their recent reunion provided the sense that this new friendship will keep Holmes from moving back into that cemetery any time soon.