Remarks by Rose Roby
St. Petersburg City Hall
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Thank you for coming. I’d like to speak a little about the short life and unnecessary death of Maria Fernandes. She died last month, 32 years old, poisoned by gas fumes in her car as she napped between her four jobs. That’s right, four jobs. According to her friends, she often went five days in a row without sleep because there was no room for sleep in Maria Fernandes’ life — not a real sleep, in her bed for 7-8 hours. That was a luxury she couldn’t afford. So she caught some winks here and there between assignments and last month she pulled into a parking lot, wearing her Dunkin’ Donuts uniform so there would be no need change before going to her next shift; but this time she never woke up. Dead at 32.