Milton Antônio Scavacini died after three years in the United States.

Brazilian Milton Antônio Scavacini, 59, a married man, was born in Barretos, São Paulo State, and was living in Newark, N.J. at the time of his death. He planned to conquer the American Dream, but his plans were tragically interrupted on April 4. The distance from family, the difficulty of life, the language barrier, and contact with different social values can all cause many immigrants to lose their bearings. In recent years, alcoholism, prostitution, and drug dependency among immigrants have gradually increased.

Milton Antônio lived on Fleming Avenue in the Ironbound neighborhood and was found dead in his room, at about 11 a.m., by his roommate, Rio de Janeiro native Carlos Bello. Bello found his roommate dead after calling out several times for Scavacini to come and watch TV. Unemployed for several months, Milton worked for two-and-a-half years at a company that did maintenance on bridges and viaducts.

“He had gotten sick and was without work for eight months. He started to lose his voice, and we suspected that there was some kind of cancer. His voice kept disappearing, getting smaller and smaller. We fought him tooth and nail to get him to go to the hospital— but nothing. On top of this, he drank and smoked a lot, without eating,” Carlos remembered.

Milton’s financial and physical situation worried his friends. “Last Thursday, we went out in the morning and headed to the bridge where he had been working, to ask the foreman to give him something to do. He couldn’t do anything. He said, ‘The only thing I can do for you is allow you to come back to work on the bridge for the night shift,’ that same Thursday. Milton then asked me what I thought. I told him ‘You are not healthy enough to work, but at least there, if something goes wrong with your health, there’s someone around to help you,’” Carlos said.

Despite this opportunity, Milton was not able to return to work. “When evening came, he said that it didn’t make sense to go—he couldn’t bear it. He was complaining of pains in his stomach and in throat. One day before his death, he told me that he hadn’t eaten in four days and that it hurt a lot when food passed down his throat,” his roommate commented.

Since the state of Milton’s health was not improving and he was refusing to get medical attention, Carlos began to issue threats. “A human being can’t live this way. You are killing yourself. You spend the whole night moaning—if I hear one more moan, I am going to pick up the phone and call an ambulance. He then told me to leave him alone, that nothing was hurting anymore, and that I should let him sleep a little. He went back to bed. At that point, I turned on the TV. I was waiting for another friend. When she showed up, we went out immediately,” Carlos said.

About two hours later, Carlos returned home. “I came in and I started to work. At that point, I shouted to Milton that he should come and chat with me but he didn’t respond. I kept on— ‘Milton, come here’—and, nothing. I went to take a look at him, he was in the exact position in which I left him. I looked at his breathing and I knew there was a problem. I immediately grabbed the telephone and called the ambulance,” he said.

In a couple of minutes, the ambulance and a police team reached the scene. “In five minutes, the rescue team arrived, accompanied by the police, they looked at him and they said, “Forget it.” He was dead. After that, they set up some machines, turned them on, documented the incident, and then the police stayed here until a little after 4 p.m. From the English, which I didn’t understand well, but from the gestures they were making, he [the doctor] was saying to the police that rigor mortis sets in two hours after death, and that Milton’s stiffness was very advanced. He was probably already dead when I called him to talk with me, maybe even in the morning,” Carlos said.

The body of Milton Antônio Scavacini was delivered to the Legal Medical Institute of Newark, NJ, where it awaits the proper documents from Brazil for release to his family. The family of this Brazilian man, comprising his wife and three daughters, one married, are in no financial condition to bring his body to Brazil. According to Carlos, Milton’s former boss made a verbal promise to pay for the delivery of his mortal remains.