A mother went into shock after getting a phone call from her dead son – a month after she thought she had buried him.
Gilsimar de Souza, 35, was supposed to have been killed after being run over by a lorry on October 17.
He was laid to rest at a cemetery in Uberaba, in Brazil’s southeast state of Minas Gerais, after both his mother and aunt positively identified his body.
But Mr de Souza was in fact recovering from addiction at a rehabilitation centre in Uberlandia, 70 miles away.
And this week the bricklayer decided to get in touch with his family to let them know how he was doing.
His mother, Luzia de Matos, said: ‘I’d had absolutely no doubt it was my son I was burying. I was hysterical with grief.
‘I’d only seen my son two days before and I knew it was him. He’d also told me he was going to walk to the clinic, and the accident happened on the same road on the same day.
‘When I realised it was him I went into shock, I fell to the floor and couldn’t move. My whole body shut down.’
Mr de Souza, who plans to stay in the recuperation centre, said: ‘I wanted to give my mother some good news that I was doing well.
‘I had no idea that I had been buried a month ago. I even had a gravestone.
‘She didn’t believe it was me. I needed to say some things that happened in the past to get her to believe that it was really me. Then the phone went dead.’
Mrs de Matos said she later recovered from the shock and plans to throw a party to celebrate having her son back.
She said: ‘I jumped and laughed with happiness. It was such a great emotion. I so much wanted to embrace him.’