A police officer gave the woman a ride to the grave only to find out that she had been lying on her husband’s grave for months

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• In December 2025, a Syracuse police officer offered a ride to a woman struggling with her groceries.

• After photos of the encounter spread online, the officer learned that the woman had been sleeping on her husband’s grave for months.

• Determined to help, the officer managed to raise funds for the widow and even found her a safe, warm home as winter temperatures plummeted.

A chance encounter between a Syracuse Police Department officer and a woman carrying groceries turned out to be a lifeline for him after months of being homeless.

On December 13, 2025, while parked in his patrol car, Officer Jamie Pastorello, 33, saw Rhea Holmes struggling up a hill with a box of groceries and offered her a ride. “I thought, ‘I have to go give this lady a ride,'” Pastorello told TODAY.com.

Holmes, 55, revealed that she visited a cemetery in Syracuse, New York, where her husband is buried. During the short drive, she talked about her 26-year marriage and her faith, thanking him repeatedly for stopping to help.

Before getting out of the car, Holmes asked Pastorello to take a photo with him. The department later posted the image on Facebook on Christmas Eve, describing it as a kind moment during the holiday season. The post spread widely, even reaching maintenance workers at the cemetery, who recognized Holmes and contacted authorities with concern.

The worker said he had seen Holmes regularly since the summer and believed she had been sleeping in the grave, often at the grave of her husband. Pastorello was shocked by the information. “We deal with the homeless every day,” he said. “He had no clue.”

As it turns out, Holmes had been living in the grave for about eight months, near the graves of both her husband and her father. She slept on a tarp over her husband’s grave, “wearing the same outfit every day” and stored limited groceries nearby.

She avoided drawing attention to herself and never asked for help. “I never thought I’d be in that situation,” Holmes told TODAY.com. “Not in a million years.”

Before losing housing, Holmes worked as an administrative assistant. Her husband, Rev. Eddie Holmes, was a minister and musician who also worked as a security guard. He died in 2020 at the age of 69 due to a sudden heart attack.

After his death and grief-stricken, Rhea lost her job and was eventually evicted. She avoided shelters because she felt safe on her own—surviving the cold winter nights outside and using nearby campus bathrooms to maintain basic hygiene.

Despite her circumstances, she volunteered at food pantries and churches. Riya said, ‘I am giving to others. “It was the only way I could keep going.”

Rhea said she believes her faith led her to Pastorello. “God put Jamie there,” he insisted. “He knew I needed help, and he guided me to him.”

After realizing the full extent of her condition, Pastorello helped secure temporary housing for Rhea and started a GoFundMe that raised more than $27,000.

“Rhea, you are not going to sleep outside again. I will not let that happen,” he told her.

She later connected with a local organization that provides small, fully furnished homes for those in need – and moved into a fully furnished unit on January 5, 2026.

Rhea was safely indoors as temperatures in Syracuse dropped below freezing during the recent snowstorm. “I know I can’t make it,” she told TODAY.com. “If that ride hadn’t happened when it happened … I don’t want to imagine.”

A month after they first met, Pastorello said he and Rhea have become “great friends,” talking on the phone almost every day and often meeting for coffee.

“Sometimes, it’s just about showing up,” Pastorello told TODAY. “One simple action at the right time can change everything.”

Read the original article on People