Woman kept showing up at strangers’ funerals — and yet, it's a love story to move any hopeless romantic
Most people avoid funerals unless they have to but she attended them on purpose.
Most people avoid funerals unless they have no choice. For 33-year-old Daniela Signor from Pinhalzinho, a small town in southwest São Paulo with fewer than 3,000 residents, funerals became part of her routine. She attended them regularly for two years, not because she knew the deceased or their families well, but because she wanted to see Apollo Scariot, the local undertaker, as reported by Vice.
Signor first noticed Apollo in April 2023 — she was attending the funeral of a distant acquaintance when she saw the 31-year-old working as the funeral director. He was professional and serious, and she was instantly drawn to him. He, however, didn’t notice her at all. "I don’t even like funerals," Daniela later admitted to local media. "I used to think, 'I’ll give the family a hug just so I can see him.' But he wasn’t always there." Despite not liking the setting, she kept going.
Every few months, she would attend a service, blending in easily because in a town where everyone knows everyone, her presence didn’t raise questions, but her visits weren’t enough to catch Apollo’s attention. She explained, "He had no idea — I only told him later, when we finally started talking. Then he was like, 'Wait, how did I never notice you before?' He was always so focused on work."
Research has shown that this kind of persistence and repeated interaction can play a huge role in forming relationships. A 2023 study published in SAGE Journals, titled "The Work of a Relationship: Commitment Assurances and Time Investment in Daily Life", tracked more than 350 participants across two daily-experience studies and found that people who felt more committed consistently gave "assurance" behaviors — small actions or words that signaled a future together — and, on those same days, spent more physical time with their partners. The researchers concluded that persistence and repeated time investment weren’t just background habits but active signals that relationships mattered and had long-term potential.
Signor's repeated presence at funerals over two years, even without Apollo noticing her at first, mirrors that pattern of ongoing time investment building familiarity until it opened the door to connection. And just like that, her persistence eventually worked, and after years of slipping into funerals, hoping for a chance, Signor and Scariot finally began talking. They started dating last year, and in May, the couple got married. Their wedding carried the theme of how they met, with Signor arriving at the ceremony in a hearse belonging to Apollo’s company, a banner on the back reading, "Till death do us part." Guests were stunned at the sight, but the couple explained everything when they read their story aloud during their vows.
"Everyone at the wedding was shocked, but during our vows, we explained everything — we read out our story. Then people understood why I arrived in the hearse," Signor said. Their story made waves across social media and was also covered by local media, SBT News. Apollo also spoke about how unusual the attention has been. "We never expected it," he told What’s The Jam, "We decided to arrive in the hearse because it’s part of our story — how we met."
More on Scoop Upworthy
Share on Facebook
