Fed II Star - February 26, 2006

REAL LIFE NEWS: SPANISH ZOMBIE CELEBRATES RESURRECTION

How's this for a quote from a news story: "I love you a lot but I can't marry you, I can't because I am dead." Read on to find out what this is all about (and no, despite my headline, there's no zombies or vampires involved...)

A woman in Spain is celebrating this week because she has come back from the dead. Well, not literally, but certainly bureaucratically! She has been battling for the past eight years to be taken off the country's death register, after officials insisted she died in 1992.

Maria Antonia Calbo, aged 43, from Malaga was registered as dead fourteen years ago. She claims her brother filed the registration as part of a dispute over inheritance, after her father died without leaving a will. Under Spanish law, any inheritance goes to the next in line but they must have siblings' permission to use it. She intends to sue the brother.

She didn't realise right away that she was legally dead - but eight years ago she received a court summons from Barcelona to verify her status. She immediately presented herself to a judge to prove that she was very much alive, but the civil registry in Barcelona refused to change their paperwork. Typical bureacrats! When she tried to get lawyers to represent her, they refused, saying there was no precedent.

Ms Calbo said the situation would not have been resolved if the media hadn't taken an interest in her unusual situation. Her fiance Antonio Guzman persuaded her to speak to the press after he learned of her situation. Yes, that's where the quote at the head of this article comes from - she couldn't marry him because legally she didn't exist. "When I showed him my birth certificate with the stamp across it which officially showed I was dead he couldn't believe it, and it was thanks to him that I launched a cry for help to the media," she explained.

Being dead caused several problems for Ms Calvo. Apart from not being able to get married, she would not have been able to draw a pension - although she still paid taxes, the government clearly not being averse to taking money from a dead woman! But the biggest worry was the fear that the authorities might take her two children from her; they were legally classed as orphans since their mother was dead!

Now she is legally alive again, she's planning to marry Mr Guzman in the Spring.