When somebody tells you that you look tired or ill, it’s bad enough, but when they tell you that you’re dead, well, it’s a bloody cheek, really.

That’s what one elderly gent from Órgiva thought, at least, not only because he was most certainly still alive at his 72 years of age, but also because the Junta de Andalucía had stopped his pension.

Juan José Martín Jiménez had been declared officially dead on the 23rd of September this year therefore his old-age pension had been terminated. Now, if that’s not enough to kill you through a heart attack, what is?

Naturally, Juan José sent off a couple of smoking missives explaining that he was writing from home and not the after life and that therefore, would they be so kind as to reboot his pension. Previously he had to go the the local law courts with his ID and declare himself as “alive” and they gave him a fe de vida document… and no doubt a round of applause for our Alpujarreño Lazaro.

Time ticked on and even today he still hasn’t heard a peep out of  the Junta – they remain as silent as a tomb!

(News: Órgiva, Alpujarra, Granada, Andalucia)