55-year-old Rhea Holmes has found a safe place to live and a budding friendship with the policeman who chose to step in after she was found living in Oakwood Cemetery in December.
Holmes’ tragic home among the gravestones began years earlier after the sudden death of her husband, Eddie Holmes. The couple had been married for 26 years and were close to achieving their dream of homeownership.
Tragically, on the very day in October 2020 that their offer on a dream house was accepted, Eddie suffered a fatal heart attack. This sudden tragedy shattered Rhea’s life, leaving her devastated.
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Rhea eventually found refuge in the quiet cemetery grounds, the place she felt nearest to her deceased husband. Instead of purchasing a house, Holmes used the down payment to buy a cemetery plot for her husband, which included a bench for her to sit and reflect.
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Holmes’s constant focus on the past resulted in a severe depression. As her financial situation got worse, she lost her job and was eventually evicted, which only intensified her feelings of hopelessness.
Too proud to use a shelter, she found comfort and a sense of belonging by living at her husband’s grave.
“I didn’t want people to worry,” she told Syracuse.com. “I just stayed there.”
Starting in May 2025, she dedicated her days to volunteering at the local food pantry. At night, she would silently enter the cemetery to sleep next to her husband, managing to remain undiscovered.
Holmes told CBS News, “I assumed that I was going to die there.” But then “along comes an angel.”
A retired officer noticed Holmes’s regular visits to the cemetery in December and finally contacted the police. Jamie Pastorello, a Syracuse Police Officer responded to the call, becoming a supportive friend who took Holmes “under his wing.”
“I was completely shocked,” Pastorello told Syracuse.com. “When I found out she was sleeping outside, especially with how cold it was getting, that really hit me.”
“It was just the right thing to do,” Pastorello told CBS. “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.”
He initially paid for a hotel room for Holmes, then connected her with the president of LeMoyne College, who allowed her to stay on campus during the students’ winter break.
Pastorello’s support went beyond that. He launched a GoFundMe campaign and introduced Holmes to A Tiny Home for Good, a nonprofit that offers affordable rent for tiny homes to people who need them.
Holmes was eventually able to move into a tiny home when one became available.
“First time I walked in here, I walked over to this wall, and I was praying that you know, thank God that finally I could call a place home after living in the cemetery. That was the first thing I said,” Holmes told WSYR-TV.
Rhea has been receiving regular check-ins since moving in. Eliesha Peeble, a case manager with A Tiny Home for Good, usually visits once a week for coffee to see how she is settling in.
Pastorello also stops by a few times for a friendly chat.
“It’s an ongoing friendship that won’t ever end,” Holmes said, adding, “People need other people…we need each other.”
