There is a lot more to Rosa Panadero’s case than just being another potential eviction candidate in Salobreña; life has been cruel and only a week before the eviction case she had buried her 16-year-old daughter, who had died in a car crash. Rosa had already lost her 18-year-old son five years previously.

For these reasons, and because nobody deserves such an accumulation of misery, hundreds of Salobreña locals have turned out to support her in her fight not to lose her home, as well.

Rosa owed 67,000 euros on her house when she was forced to remortgage it, but what was supposed to be a lifeline turned out to be a scam – the document she signed with a money-lender was really a bill of purchase. Unaware, she continued paying her mortgage payments until she received notification from the Town Hall informing her that the money lenders had already carried through the ‘purchase,’ putting the property in their name via the law courts, hence the eviction.

Her youngest daughter lives in a government-run home (Junta) and of course, there was no way of getting custody of her again if she was of no fixed abode.

It’s a long story, sown with tragedy and deaths but thanks to the collective effort of over 200 locals, she still has a roof over her head; somewhere to grieve the loss of two children and the distance separating her from the third and youngest.

(News: Salobrena, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)