Cause of death: fondue accident – 03/15/2024 – Cozinha Bruta

“Indigenous man has 30% of his body burned after fondue accident in restaurant in RS”. My eyes popped out of their sockets when I read this title on the Folha website, on Monday, March 11th.

Like this? What happened there?

The title, it’s worth pointing out right away, has nothing sensationalistic about it. It’s not clickbait.

He objectively describes the tragedy that befell young Jaqueline Tedesco, from the Kaingang ethnic group, the fourth indigenous person to graduate in law from the Federal University of Rio Grande, on the coast of Rio Grande do Sul.

The tragedy became even greater this Friday, when Jaqueline’s death was announced. Again, perplexity: how could something like this happen?

On Saturday (9), Jaqueline celebrated graduation with colleagues, friends and family. Even though it was summer, we chose a restaurant specializing in fondue.

In fondue, as we know, the heat source is a spiriteira, a small alcohol stove.

At some point, the flame died down. It was necessary to refill the spirit tank. An absolutely banal procedure in a fondue restaurant.

It was during this maneuver, carried out by a waitress, that the bottle of alcohol exploded and caused fatal injuries to Jaqueline.

All responsibilities must be determined but, despite this, the episode is a raw example of our impotence in the face of the randomness of existence.

Under no circumstances could Jaqueline have imagined that that fondue would become her last dinner. Who dies in a restaurant? How many times has this chafing dish been filled without any problems?

It turns out that accidents happen.

There was, many years ago, an accident to which I gave little or no importance.

At a friend’s wedding, a guest choked on a piece of food. She couldn’t speak or scream, she just made gestures that were difficult to understand.

Another friend realized what was happening and punched the girl in the back. She spat out the food, recovered herself, and the party continued into the night, with laughter and many liters of beer.

Some time later, I fell in love with the girl who choked.

If things had gone another way at that party, I don’t know what my life would be like now. If she choked alone, away from the other guests, my youngest child might not exist.

Neither you nor I, nor anyone else, have control over anything. This is terrifying, but at the same time it is liberating. It means that worry is a useless torment.

Dream and make plans. Keep in mind, however, that your future depends less on your own decisions than on the decisions of others and their consequences, as well as completely imponderable events. Like, for example, a pandemic or lightning that falls from the sky.

You there, working hard in the office to pay your bills, might become a director of the company next year. Or maybe, next week, he’ll be stuck in a hospital bed.

It depends very little on you. So relax, it hurts less.

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