After 10 Yrs, Woman Still at Airport

A middle-aged German woman has chosen a Spanish airport as her residence for 10 years and has no intention of changing it, the Guardian reported.

More than 20 million travelers pass through Palma de Mallorca's airport each year and at first glance Bettina could be just another tourist waiting for a flight home. But she never checks in.
Known only as Bettina, 48, or as "the woman with the cat" has become a fixture at the airport where she washes herself and clothing in restrooms and quietly moves from bench to bench.
She came to Spain after a relationship ended and she lost her job. But employment opportunities there were also limited and she moved into the airport where she lives on gifts of food and money from strangers and friends, reported The Guardian Saturday.
Bettina is reportedly popular among airport staff.
"She is intelligent, discreet and does not bother anyone. She says she has made this her home because she has everything she needs here," cleaner Maria Jesus Rueda Garcia, 54, an airport employee, told The Guardian.
"Things didn't work out so she has come to live here. She can get by and is not a beggar because she has income -- I have seen her take money out of the cashpoint (automated teller machine). This could happen to us all."
Her story recalls the Tom Hanks film The Terminal, which was reportedly inspired by the story of man who lived at Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris for 18 years after his documents were stolen.
Bettina, who refuses to disclose her full name, arrived in Mallorca for a new start but she landed odd jobs working as a waitress then helping in a kitchen.
The dream of living in the sun turned sour. "Suddenly there was no work because they only give jobs to Spaniards," she told the local Diario de Mallorca newspaper. "I wanted to work in Mallorca but I got stranded here."
"One friend brings me something to eat twice a week. Sometimes people give me a bit of money as well, but I don't ask anyone for anything," she said.
She has no desire to return to Germany. "No way. Life is better for me here."
Bettina is not the only one to live in a Spanish airport. Generally, such residents are tolerated so long as they do not bother passengers. In Britain, four people are allowed to live at Gatwick.