Mother and daughter who asked not to be told if the other died both lose their cancer battle just 10 hours apart

From the Newshound archive · first published 26 September 2026 · last updated 27 September 2026.

Cibele Marchis, 28, drew her final breath at around 4pm on Thursday 24 September at a hospital in Mogi Guaçu, Brazil. At that same moment, her mother, Maria Elisabete Nogueira, 56, lay sedated and unconscious at a separate hospital across town — with no knowledge that her daughter had died. Maria passed away 10 hours later, and neither woman ever learned the other had gone. Both had made an explicit request to their family to withhold that news from them, no matter what.

Cibele's cousin Rowilson Leandro da Costa said of the father left behind: 'He lost his family — to come home and find no one there anymore, it's sad, difficult.'

Cibele had a rare, aggressive adrenal gland cancer first detected in 2023; her mother Maria Elisabete had pancreatic cancer and had been hospitalised since 17 September.

Friends and family were still at Cibele's wake when news of Maria's death arrived, and the two were subsequently laid to rest together at a joint funeral.