HAINES CITY, Fla. — A cemetery is a special place—a place where the living can reconnect with loved ones who are no longer physically with us.
For decades, Veronica Bermudes didn't have that place to reconnect with her little brother Ricardo.
"Fifty years it took me to come over and visit him," she said.
Ricardo died when he was just 2 years old. Bermudes was only a couple of years older at the time.
"I guess because I was the youngest one, I never came out here. That's why it took 50 years to come out here. One of my oldest brothers used to come and visit. He was the only one that knew how close he was to where my little brother's grave was," she said.
For years, she told her children about her desire to find her brother.
"I would always tell them that I wanted to go and find him. And when they would tell me, 'Well, let's go, Mom. Let's go find him.' But, I mean, where was I going to begin?" she said.
So Bermudes decided to change that and finally locate her brother's grave.
"All of my family has been passing away pretty young. It's only me and three other brothers that are left. But two of them live in Texas, and I live in Plant City. And I just have one of my other brothers that moved back to Plant City," she said. "I would always have it on my mind that I wanted to find him because there was something missing that we needed to go and visit.
Bermudes decided to go to City Hall and seek answers from City Clerk Sharon Lauther.
"I don't get requests like that. Honestly, usually, the records that they want are meeting records and municipal-type things, legal records. This was personal," she explained.
Lauther, however, knew it would be a tough task.
"When they came first to City Hall, we didn't think that we would be able to find it. That was the first thing I said, but I said I promise you that I'll put every ounce of work into finding it," Lauther said.
Their suspicions were correct. It wasn't an easy find.
"I was working on it every single day. Every free moment I had, I would just keep calling and emailing and calling and searching," she said. "At the nth hour, the last day was when she brought me the pictures. And I zoomed in past the pictures, and I said, 'I'm going to the cemetery.' I'm actually going to go walk and look for this headstone, and I found it. We contacted our staff. We came out here. We probed it, and lo and behold bingo."
Bermudes never thought the day would come. Being able to finally stand at her brother's grave at Forrest Hill Cemetery in Haines City left her full of emotions.
"I was lost. I didn't know where to begin. But I'm glad it came and I'm glad it got here before even I was gone," she said.
Bermudes' successful quest gives Lauther a sense of pride in her duty as City Clerk.
"I can't explain it in words. It has humbled me to know that I've affected a family this way. And being a City Clerk and my job and what I do is just that much more important to me now," she added.
Their diligence has finally allowed Bermudes to have those sibling chats with her brother.
We asked her what she would say to Ricardo.
"Know that I'm here now. Now you'll have flowers. I want to tell him that he'll have his stone pretty soon," she said.
Through her perseverance and love, it shows the bond between these siblings is an unbreakable bond.
