93 Josephine Wood (Hankin) Continues Her Descent into Hell - Part 3: 12 November 2024

Just before we left Fisherman’s Bend Hostel, Cliff worked at a small engineering factory operated by a lovely man called Karl Muehleman.  The factory was located where the Saint Kilda Junction used to be located, but the factory site has now disappeared beneath the engineering achievements which have replaced the former Saint Kilda Junction.

Once we moved to Parsons Road Research, it was impossible for Cliff to commute to Saint Kilda and he got a job with a company called Crockford and Robertson at Heidelberg.  This meant he only had to walk 2 miles to Eltham railway station and then get a trin to Heidelberg and then change trains; his travel time on the trains was only about one hour.

 

Crockford and Robertson (photo above) was an air conditioning company.  We certainly had no air conditioning in our own home.  It would have been useless anyway; we had no electricity.

****

While Cliff worked every hour that was available for him to work, he had zero time to do anything to make our new home habitable.

We got our water from an outside tap on the property next door to us; that property was owned by a family called Hulmes.  We carted the water back to our house in a metal bucket because plastic buckets had not yet been invented in 1956.  The mains water supply stopped at the creek at the bottom of Parsons Road; that was at the bottom of the hill leading to our place – about 1/4 of a mile from our house.  We had to pay for the laying of a pipe from the creek up the hill to our place before we could have water in our own home.  Cliff tried to dig the trench for the water pipe with a pickaxe and spade, but he couldn’t do it on his own. Eventually Josey simply told a plumber to do whatever had to be done and told Cliff that finding the money to pay the plumber was Cliff’s problem, not hers.  I am fairly sure we did not have running water when Patrick was born on17 March 1957.  We got water in about June 1957.

Another photo of Patrick Hankin; this was taken some years ago before too much alcohol and bad food had bloated Patrick out like a balloon.

Getting electricity in the house also took months.  The main electricity supply ran past our house but there was no money to get it connected.  It was more than six months before we got electricity in our home.  At night we used kerosene lamps; the kero lamps were our only form of lighting until we eventually got electricity.

Getting the house painted only took a couple of weeks.  The painter had a wooden leg but was agile and did a good job.  Within two weeks of our arrival, he killed a brown snake that was lurking next to the house.

There was no toilet at all when we first arrived.  It took a few days before an outhouse was built with a wooden seat perched over a tin can.  I hated shitting in the tin can and I never peed into the can if I could avoid it.  Peeing into the can meant it got full much faster.  Once the can was full, Bill and I had to dig the hole and drag the can full of shit and pee across to the hole.  No matter how careful we were, some shit coloured water always splashed on our hands and legs.

We lived at Parsons Road from December 1956 until the middle of 1962 – nearly six years.  We still had to empty the shit can when we left Parsons Road for good.  I presume the people who bought our house had the money to install a septic tank.  There was no mains sewage system within miles of our house.  No one in Parsons Road had mains sewage to flush their toilets with – but we were the only family that had to use a shit can.  I loved it when we were invited into a neighbour’s home.  They all had flush toilets which did not stink.

Mum had to cook for us on a wood fuel stove.  A fire had to be started in a space above the oven.  Once the fire was burning warmly enough, cooking pots could be place on holes cut into the metal top of the fire box.  This was the only way that food could be cooked.  Boiling water had to be done by placing a kettle on top of the fire box.  We drank Lan Choo tea and the kettle always took about half an hour to boil.  Mum used to leave a metal kettle permanently on the fire box to try and make sure there was always boiling water for tea.

Once the water had been connected, we were able to have our weekly baths.  There WAS hot water for a bath.  Hot water came from a noisy contraption called a kerosene hot water heater.  Getting hot water meant we had to fill up a lidless pot with kerosene from a drum of kerosene.  The pot fuelled an ignition point above teh pot and this ignition point heated the water.  The thing made a lot of noise and somehow managed to heat the cold water that ran through it.  The hot water heater was astonishingly dangerous because the kerosene in the open can used to catch fire as well as the “wick” which was supposed to be the only part that did catch fire.  I remember Josey screaming one night when the kerosene in the open tin burst into flames.  She grabbed the tin full of blazing kerosene and ran to the back door.  Luckily, she made it out of the house before the house went up in flames.  She threw the blazing kerosene on the ground outside the back door.

We continued to use the kerosene hot water heater.  We had no money to get anything better and there was no other source of hot water.

 92 Josephine Wood (Hankin) Continues Her Descent into Hell - Part 2: 11 November 2024

Josey had her abortion in December 1954.  Her oldest son (my brother) Bill Hankin was used to provide cover so the money paid for the abortion could be washed clean and safely declared on the doctor’s income tax return.

Just before Christmas 1954, mum took Bill to see a doctor.  Bill say nothing was wrong with him and he had not complained about being sick.  Bill saw an elderly doctor in the Port Melbourne area who looked briefly at his throat and declared that his tonsils needed to come out.  Tonsillectomies were routine in the 1950s.

Because our family had no health insurance, a trip to the Royal Children’s Hospital should have followed because then the operation would have been free – but that could happen only if Bill really did need to have his tonsils out, and there was no trip to any public hospital. 

Bill was taken to a converted old fashioned Port Melbourne house where the laundry had been turned into an operating theatre.  During the 3 or 4 days that Bill convalesced in a room in the house, he received no visits from mum and I know I was never taken to see him.

Bill was placed in a room with 6 older men who all thought it was a great joke that he was there at all, but they never explained why. 

While Bill was recovering from having his tonsils out, mum was undoubtedly in a different room in the same house recovering from her abortion.  Once mum recovered, Bill was discharged into Josey’s care.  The charge for the abortion was camouflaged as the cost of Bill’s tonsil operation.

****

The one lesson Josey seems to have learned from her abortion was that she should always give birth to more children rather than have any more abortions.

Although resolving never again to have an abortion, Josey ignored the Catholic teaching that said she must not commit adultery.

Mum’s adultery was the underlying reason for our inexplicably sudden move from Fisherman’s Bend to Research in December 1956 – a move that saw us transplanted into a house which was unfit for habitation.

****

William (Bill) Nash was a womaniser and an entertainment organiser for the British Army in WW 2.  In 1956, Bill Nash was the driving force behind the Fisherman’s Bend Migrant Hostel “Show”.  Every hostel in Melbourne had its own Show and every Shown put on performances  for every other hostel.  The Fisherman’s Bend Show was one of many.

Mum appeared in an act with Bill Nash which even to my young mind seemed very strange.

The act went like this …

A tramp (Bill Nash) was sitting on a bench in a park reading a newspaper.  Josey approached the bench and instead of running like buggery, she sat down on the bench.  The tramp then produced a pair of scissors and started cutting pieces of her clothing off.  Josey pretended to protest but stayed on the bench.  Instead of Josey heading for the hills, she allowed the tramp to keep cutting away at her clothes.  It was truly cringeworthy stuff and it played out while someone hammered away on the stage piano.

Counting backwards from when Patrick was born on 17 March 1957, Josey became pregnant with Patrick on about Sunday 8 July 1956.  By Sunday 16 December 1956, she was about 24 weeks into her pregnancy.  It would have been impossible for anyone to not notice she was pregnant.

I am completely certain that Bill Nash was Patrick’s biological father and that we left the hostel in such a frantic rush because someone had told Cliff that Josey had been having an affair with Bill Nash.  Dad wanted to immediately remove Josey from the place where she was having her affair with Bill Nash.

 

The photo above was taken on 8 August 2013.  It shows Patrick Hankin.

 

 

I do not know when this second photo was taken.  It shows a different Patrick – Patrick Nash.  Patrick Nash is the grandson of Bill Nash.  I have no doubt at all that Patrick Nash is the nephew of my brother Patrick Hankin.  

We had to live for months in a house that was not fit for human habitation because our mother Josephine Wood had been unable to resist the temptation to fuck a man who was most definitely NOT her husband.

Instead of doing any of the stereotypical things that the movies love to attribute to the bullshit called “toxic masculinity”, Cliff did not beat Josey up and he did not abuse her in any way.  Instead of all those possible actions that would have given modern moralisers an excuse to condemn him, he immediately removed Josey from the scene of temptation and tried to persuade her that she should love him instead – by working impossible hours so he could earn enough money through honest labour to pay the mortgage of ten pounds per week – roughly what he could earn for working a 40 hour week – and to also put food on the table so we could eat.

Cliff was a great man who never complained.  He never raised his voice in anger in my hearing.  He never raised his fists in anger to anyone and he never treated anyone disrespectfully.  Cliff could easily have beaten anyone to a complete pulp because he had worked all of his life in extremely hard labour and he was immensely strong – but he never abused anyone.  Instead of getting angry and using violence, Cliff smoked cigarettes non stop and he could easily have drained several breweries of every drop of beer that they could ever make.

Cliff was a great man who was married to a woman who was so bird brained she had no ability to see the quality of the man she was married to. 

Instead of realising how blessed she had been, Josey kept dreaming of how much better off she would be if she could only fuck someone other than her own wonderful husband.

Our headlong flight from Fisherman’s Bend Migrant Hostel was not the final attempt by Cliff to deprive his wife of the opportunity for further adultery.

Nor was Patrick was not the only child Cliff had to raise as his own even though someone else had been the biological father.

 

91 Josephine Wood (Hankin) Continues Her Descent into Hell - Part 1: 10 November 2024

Josephine Hankin finally died on 20 March 2012.  She died in a nursing home, having suffered a stroke 15 months earlier; the stroke meant she was no longer able to manage even the easiest tasks of daily living unaided.

This is a copy of the front page of the booklet produced for her funeral.

The photo of mum on the front of the funeral booklet has an image of Josey from when she was decades younger than the 87 years and 10 months at the time she died.  This photo shows her as she was at a time when her descent into mental illness had certainly begun, but when most of her suffering was still in the future.

We arrived at Fisherman’s Bend Migrant Hostel in December 1952 after spending 2 weeks in Bonegilla Migrant Hostel.  The family finances were non existent when we arrived at Fisherman’s Bend.  To use an old Australian expression that has now disappeared, neither mum or dad had a brass razoo.  The family had zero, zilch, nada, nothing, by way of money - not even a threepenny bit.  The threepenny coin (the bit) was known as a “trey”.  Dad told me he borrowed £10/-/- to enable us to get by after we got to Fisherman's Bend.

When we arrived at Fisherman’s Bend, both mum and dad were nominally Catholics, but in reality they were agnostics.  Then something happened and mum became a Catholic religious lunatic.  The trigger for mum’s sudden interest in Catholicism was simple.  She became pregnant in 1954 and she had an abortion.  

As I write this in 2024, this is not seen as a big deal, but in the 1950s, having an abortion was a crime for both the mother and for the abortionist.  The crime of having an abortion meant – if you were caught – several years in jail.

Bill remembers mum was physically ill (vomiting), then she was absent from our Nissen hut for a few days, and when she returned to the Nissen hut, she was no longer ill – or at least she was no longer physically ill.  Instead of being physically ill, mum was noticeably mentally ill.  My guess is that mum was put in touch with the abortionist by a friend called Margaret Smith.  Mum met Margaret Smith while working at General Motors Holden.  I always liked Mrs Smith.  Mrs Smith lived in a rented workman’s cottage in Little Bay Street Port Melbourne.  The house Mrs Smith once lived in, has now been replaced by a shopping centre and no one earning the wages of a process worker could now ever afford to live in Port Melbourne – not in Little Bay Street or in any other street in Port Melbourne.

Once mum returned to our hut after her absence, she became a crazy God bothering Catholic.  From that point on, we were all forced to go to the Port Melbourne Catholic Church (Saint Joseph).  From that point on, if the priest told mum to jump, she simply asked how high she was required to jump.

I think two separate factors were at work after the abortion in 1954.  Mum had already “sinned” and had a child before she ever met dad.  This “sin” had caused her to lose her child; she had committed a crime and she had been “punished” by God – most importantly, she had been punished by the Catholic version of God.  In her mind, this was crime and punishment at work.  The second factor was mum having the abortion.  She thought she had to atone for the gigantic sin of her baby aborted.

****

When we finally left Fisherman’s Bend Hostel in December 1956 – four years after we arrived – we did so in circumstances which were - to say the least - extremely peculiar.

Bill and I were at school at Saint Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Port Melbourne on the day we left.  There had been no hint we were moving when we went to school that morning.

Earlier in 1956, mum and dad had bought a block of land at Parsons Road Research, about 2 miles from Eltham.  In 1956, Eltham was a small country town.  We used to get two trains to reach Eltham railway station and then walk the two miles to Parsons Road so we could check the progress of the building of our small wooden house.  

On the Sunday before we left Fisherman’s Bend, the house had no electricity, no running water, it had holes in the walls where the windows and chimney were going to be installed and there was no toilet.  As well as all these items that needed to be finished, the house was completely unpainted. 

The house at Lot 8 Parsons Road Research was unfit for human habitation.  It was nowhere near finished apart from the existence of the walls, roof and floor.  In retrospect, we were very lucky that the house did have walls, a roof and a floor.  

I am certain that no matter what condition the house had been in, dad would have insisted that we move in anyway.

Dad arrived at the school while we were in the schoolyard for afternoon playtime.  He found us and told us we were moving to the new house that very day and that we were leaving the school immediately.

He bundled us into a car (driven by a friend from the hostel ) and we were driven back to the hostel.  Dad didn’t bother telling the nuns we were leaving school.  He just ordered us into the car and that was our final day at Saint Joseph School Port Melbourne. We arrived in the unfinished house that night.  It was pitch black and there was nowhere to sleep.  It was months before we had electricity or running water.  We never did have a flush toilet.  We shat and peed into a tin can which we buried in a hole we dug when the can got full.

****

It took me decades to work out what had happened.

Mum gave birth to my brother Patrick on 17 March1957  There was a connection between the birth of Patrick and our rushed departure from the hostel.

 

90 The Ombudsman Denies It Acted Corruptly (5): 9 November 2024

In this blog, I finish my summary of the criminal offences that I believe took place at the Ombudsman.  Because I am not a criminal lawyer, there are undoubtedly other crimes that probably took place.  Identification of those additional offences can be delegated to those with more criminal law experience.

****

Making False or Misleading Statements (2)

Section 137.1 of the Criminal Code is similar to but different from section 136.1.  Section 137.1 is headed “False or misleading information or documents”.  Section 137.1 is headed “False or misleading information”; it says this.

(1) A person commits an offence if:                      (a)  the person gives information to another person; and                      (b)  the person does so knowing that the information:                               (i)  is false or misleading; or                              (ii)  omits any matter or thing without which the information is misleading; and                      (c)  any of the following subparagraphs applies:                               (i)  the information is given to a Commonwealth entity;                              (ii)  the information is given to a person who is exercising powers or performing functions under, or in connection with, a law of the Commonwealth;                             (iii)  the information is given in compliance or purported compliance with a law of the Commonwealth. Penalty:  Imprisonment for 12 months.

The difference between section 136.1 and 136.7 is that whereas section 136.1 applies to false or misleading statements made in connection with “an application or claim for a benefit”, section 137.1 applies more generally to situations where the false or misleading information is given to someone “who is exercising powers or performing functions under, or in connection with” a law passed by the Australian Parliament. 

Section 137.1 means that anyone who lies to an Ombudsman staff member carrying out official Ombudsman duties, commits a crime.

I believe it is certain that as yet unidentified people acting on behalf of HCF and/ or other health insurers made false and misleading statements to the Ombudsman knowing that these statements were false. 

Obviously someone in HCF falsely told the Ombudsman that claims for insurance benefits payable under our HCF policy for services provided to Margaret by Lift had not been paid because Lift had been requested to provide additional information, but had failed to provide it. 

In my opinion, it is highly likely that people who are as yet unidentified but who were officially acting on behalf of HCF, gave information to the Ombudsman knowing that the information they gave was false or misleading. 

In the alternative, in my opinion it is highly likely that people who are as yet unidentified but who were officially acting on behalf of HCF, gave information to the Ombudsman knowing that the information in question omitted “matters or things” without which the information was misleading.  The Ombudsman could not have decided that HCF had asked for and not been provided with relevant information about Margaret’s Lift treatment claims, unless there had been an offence under section 137.1 of the Criminal Code.

Unless HCF had made false or misleading statements, it would have been impractical for the Ombudsman to dismiss my complaints – no matter how much some of the Ombudsman staff wanted to dismiss every complaint concerning a refusal by the health insurers to pay for services provided by Lift. 

Unless false or misleading statements were made to the Ombudsman on behalf of HCF, the 5 April 2022 email could not have been sent.

Abuse of Public Office

Section 141.2 of the Criminal Code makes it a crime for an Australian “public official” to misuse his or her powers as a public official.  Section 142.2 is headed “Abuse of public office” and it says this.

(1)  A Commonwealth public official commits an offence if:                      (a)  the official:                               (i)  exercises any influence that the official has in the official’s capacity as a Commonwealth public official; or                              (ii)  engages in any conduct in the exercise of the official’s duties as a Commonwealth public official; or                             (iii)  uses any information that the official has obtained in the official’s capacity as a Commonwealth public official; and                      (b)  the official does so with the intention of:                               (i)  dishonestly obtaining a benefit for himself or herself or for another person; or                              (ii)  dishonestly causing a detriment to another person. Penalty:  Imprisonment for 5 years.

The dismissal of the multiple complaints I and others made to the Ombudsman was so perverse that no reasonable decision maker could have acted in this manner.  The stench of possible corrupt conduct is extremely strong. 

I believe it is probable that someone working at the Ombudsman acted “dishonestly causing a detriment” to Margaret and myself.  It was rationally and legally impossible for our complaints to have been dismissed in the manner that they were - unless someone at the Ombudsman committed the offence created by section 141.2(1).

An in depth investigation by the Australian Federal Police would be needed to establish if there is enough evidence lay charges for offences in breach of subsection (1) of section 141.2 of the Criminal Code. 

I believe multiple breaches took place. 

****

Margaret staged this photo on 24 May 2023.  We had both been awake since 12.30 am because of the severe pain she was suffering.

 89 The Ombudsman Denies It Acted Corruptly (4): 9 November 2024

As promised on 7 November, this is a summary of the criminal offences that I believe may have committed by staff at the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

Dishonest Influencing of a Public Official

Section 135.1 of the Criminal Code is headed “General dishonesty”.  Section 135.1(7) is headed “Influencing a Commonwealth public official”.  Section 135.1(7) says this.

(7) A person commits an offence if:                      (a) the person does anything with the intention of dishonestly influencing a public official in the exercise of the official’s duties as a public official; and                      (b)  the public official is a Commonwealth public official; and                      (c)  the duties are duties as a Commonwealth public official. Penalty:  Imprisonment for 5 years.

My experiences with the Ombudsman convinced me that the Ombudsman made no attempt to carry out the its duties under the Ombudsman Act.

At no time did the Ombudsman show any interest in the facts of my complaints or in the requirements of the health insurance legislation.

The Ombudsman never pretended to act as an “independent umpire”.  In my experience, the Ombudsman only ever acted as a mouthpiece for HCF.

I doubt this could have occurred unless the Ombudsman had been improperly influenced by HCF and (probably) by other health insurers.

I gave the Ombudsman a complete set of all correspondence for every Lift service Margaret had.  The documents I gave the Ombudsman completely disproved any claim that Lift had been asked for additional information but had not provided it.  Although it had all of the necessary proof to the contrary, the Ombudsman still told me what it knew was a lie.  It claimed HCF had requested and not been given additional information about Margaret’s claims.

I believe there is a probability that as yet unidentified people acted on behalf of HCF with “the intention of dishonestly influencing” the Ombudsman in the performance of its duties.  These people must have been closely connected to HCF.  Some of these dishonest influencers may even have been employed in the Health Department and/ or the Ombudsman. 

An in depth investigation by the Australian Federal Police would be needed to establish if there is enough evidence lay charges for offences in breach of subsection (7) of section 135.1 of the Criminal Code.  I believe multiple breaches took place.

The email dated 5 April 2022 is inexplicable unless dishonest influencing of Ombudsman staff occurred.  

****

Conspiracy to Defraud

Section 135.4 of the Criminal Code is headed “Conspiracy to defraud”.  Section 135.4(7) is headed “Influencing a Commonwealth public official”.  Section 135.4(7) says this.

(7) A person commits an offence if:                      (a) the person conspires with another person with the intention of dishonestly influencing a public official in the exercise of the official’s duties as a public official; and                      (b)  the public official is a Commonwealth public official; and                      (c)  the duties are duties as a Commonwealth public official. Penalty:  Imprisonment for 10 years.

I believe there is a probability that as yet unidentified people acting on behalf of HCF conspired with “the intention of dishonestly influencing” one or more “public officials” at the Ombudsman in the performance of their official duties.  At least some of those people must have been closely connected to HCF.  Some of them may have been employed either in the Health Department or in the Ombudsman.

An in depth investigation by the Australian Federal Police would be needed to establish if there is enough evidence lay charges for offences in breach of subsection (7) of section 135.4 of the Criminal Code.  I believe multiple breaches took place.

Unless an unlawful conspiracy took place, it is difficult to find a logical explanation for the 5 April 2022 email.

****

Making False or Misleading Statements (1)

Section 136.1 of the Criminal Code is headed “False or misleading statements in applications”.  Section 136.1(1) is also headed “False or misleading statements in applications”.  Section 136.1(1) says this.

(1) A person commits an offence if:                      (a)  the person makes a statement (whether orally, in a document or in any other way); and                      (b) the person does so knowing that the statement:                               (i)  is false or misleading; or                              (ii)  omits any matter or thing without which the statement is misleading; and                      (c) the statement is made in, or in connection with:                               (i)  an application for a licence, permit or authority; or                              (ii)  an application for registration; or                             (iii)  an application or claim for a benefit; and                      (d) any of the following subparagraphs applies:                               (i)  the statement is made to a Commonwealth entity;                              (ii)  the statement is made to a person who is exercising powers or performing functions under, or in connection with, a law of the Commonwealth;                             (iii)  the statement is made in compliance or purported compliance with a law of the Commonwealth. Penalty:  Imprisonment for 12 months.

I believe it is completely certain that as yet unidentified people acting on behalf of HCF made false and misleading statements to the Ombudsman knowing that these statements were false.  It is obvious that someone at HCF falsely told the Ombudsman that claims for insurance benefits payable under our HCF policy for services provided to Margaret by Lift had not been paid because Lift had been requested to provide additional information, but had failed to provide it.  

I have no doubt that these false or misleading statements were made to the Ombudsman in connection with “an application or claim for a benefit” by HCF.  The benefit sought by HCF was the rejection by the Ombudsman of the complaints I had made to the Ombudsman about the unlawful conduct by HCF in failing to obey the law and pay our claims for the Lift services provided to Margaret.  Rejection of the complains meant that HCF could continue to disobey the law and continue to disobey the law and continue to refuse to pay claims for benefits that the law required it to pay.

I anticipate it might be argued that the words “application or claim for a benefit” confine this offence to situations where the “application” may result in payment of money by the Australian government.  I think this proposition clearly wrong.  By lying to the Ombudsman, HCF stymied the “investigation” by the Ombudsman.  This meant HCF could continue to avoid paying health insurance claims that the relevant health insurance legislation said it had to pay.  HCF clearly received money by making its false and misleading statements to the Ombudsman.

Unless HCF made false or misleading statements, it would have been impractical for the Ombudsman to dismiss my complaints –and it is clear that senior staff at the Ombudsman certainly wanted to dismiss all complaints concerning Lift.  Unless false or misleading statements were made to the Ombudsman on behalf of HCF, the 5 April 2022 email could not have been sent.

An in depth investigation by the Australian Federal Police would be needed to establish if there is enough evidence lay charges for offences in breach of subsection (1) of section 136.1 of the Criminal Code.  I believe multiple breaches took place. 

****

This was Margaret receiving immunotherapy treatment on 22 January 2023.  Margaret was so very near death in January 2023.

 88 You Lose, Deadly – 8 November 2004

Is this fiction?

It is an awful play on words, but Deadly’s job really was deadly easy.  When the Angel of Death found its victims, they never put up a fight.  How could they?  The Angel of Death was – it was the Angel of Death.  Everyone Deadly ever met in its long career rolled over and died when Deadly appeared. Deadly’s assignment to collect Margaret was very routine.  She had untreatable cancer and she knew her life was doomed.  Deadly only had to arrive.  In the uncountable previous assignments, this was always enough.  Deadly came; Deadly showed its face and the assignments curled up their toes and “walked” to the next destination.  Deadly’s eternal career was as simple as this. This changed with the Margaret assignment. It started as usual.  Margaret was exhausted by the lethal cancer, the chemotherapy and the radiotherapy.  Deadly knew the rationale of chemotherapy and radiotherapy - spray the patient with medicinal poison to kill everything possible, good, bad and in between cells,.  Deadly’s job was to ensure Margaret said her final good byes before the good cells regrew.  Margaret was only barely alive.  The treatment plus the cancer in her digestive system meant she was doomed. **** Why did she resist so strongly?  How did she find the strength?  Why did this assignment go so wrong? It was night with and Margaret in bed.  Deadly slipped between Margaret and the husband.  It was the best way to do the job – take her while she slept and didn’t know. Unfortunately, Margaret was not asleep and did know what was going on.  Deadly had been complacent, relying too much on routine.  To be fair to Deadly, this was the first time since beginningless time that Deadly’s assumptions had been wrong. **** Margaret and the husband stiffened, held hands and cuddled.  Deadly had scared them but they refused to crumble in terror because Deadly had arrived. “I’m scared” Margaret whispered. “I won’t ever let you go” the husband whispered back. **** The arm wrestle started; an arm wrestle that never seemed to ease up.  Unlike Margaret and the husband, exhaustion was impossible for Deadly.   Exhausted humans lose strength, but these two never lost strength.  It wasn’t really an arm wrestle.  Deadly had no arms.  Deadly didn’t need limbs and only ever needed “Presence”. Deadly used its “Presence” to the maximum.  “Presence” should have easily overcome Margaret even with help from the husband.  Deadly’s “Presence” would easily overcome everyone on the planet.  Terrified moans came from adjoining houses, but Margaret did not moan – and she refused to die. Deadly could read thoughts – it was inherent in the job description for being the Angel of Death.  Margaret’s thoughts were unmistakeable.  “No, you can’t take me; I am going nowhere”. How could she be strong enough to put up such resistance? The husband was equally clear.  “You heard her; NO!  Bugger off.  She is going nowhere.” Deadly got a clear image from the husband.  He was somewhere deep in water.  He thought Margaret and he were wrestling – not with the Angel of Death - but with a whole ocean of death. Deadly thought “This is stupid and impossible, no one can wrestle with an ocean!” Impossible or not, the pair refused to surrender in this impossible wrestling match.  They continued to wrestle with Deadly they refused to surrender to the implacable demand Deadly made.  “No!”.  No amount of how much “Presence” could frighten them into submission, Margaret refused to die and the husband refused to let her die. **** The contest became a terrible stalemate.  They couldn’t make Deadly go away; Deadly couldn’t force them to let Margaret die.  Margaret refused to die.  The husband would not let Deadly make her die.  Deadly’s career had been eternal, but for the first time in that career, Deadly couldn’t carry out an assignment. *** All stalemates have consequences.  While Margaret refused to die, Deadly could not go to the cries of others who needed to die.  Every dying human and every dying creature couldn’t die because Deadly couldn’t force this astonishing woman to accept eath.  Margaret had to die, but she would not die. Deadly made no attempt to disguise its respect when it told the pair it would be back to finish the job.  “I will be back”, Deadly told Margaret. “You can only keep her until I get back” Deadly told the husband. **** They both knew when Deadly vanished.  The husband held Margaret tightly, stroking her back until she fell into exhausted sleep. It was dawn before the husband slept.  His body shook uncontrollably until exhaustion claimed him. **** Later, Margaret was puzzled when the husband gently asked her what she remembered.  Deadly had stripped her memory of the arm wrestle; but the husband still remembered.  When she asked what he meant, he smiled gently and said she had cried out in her sleep.. **** Two years and six months later, Margaret was in a a hospice.  By now, she accepted the inevitability of her death, but her body did not. What was supposed to be her final, pre death cat scan revealed the impossible.  The cancer had brought her to the very edge of death, but her body had exterminated the cancer.  Her body had refused to let the cancer kill her. Margaret left the hospice and the husband took her to a rehabilitation hospital.  The dying woman kept getting better.  After the rehabilitation hospital, Margaret went home. Deadly had failed in the Margaret assignment and so had Deadly’s ally, cancer. Margaret had had rejected the demands of the Angel of Death.  She could not remember the wrestling match, but she knew that Deadly was needed a lesson in humility..  When Margaret got home, she continued to get better. **** Margaret final gesture of contempt for Deadly took place some seven days after she had returned home cancer free. **** Seven days after returning home, Margaret died from an infection.  The husband clutched her tightly as she finally left him while the intensive care unit heaved with noise as machines vainly tried to keep her alive, **** Deadly was shocked. For the first time ever in beginningless time, Deadly had been defeated. Margaret had been required to die when Deadly told her to die.  NOBODY was allowed to die at any other time.  Deadly had not visited the intensive care ward.  Deadly had not seen any need to visit the intensive care unit.  Margaret’s rescheduled death date was different from the date when she actually died.  Deadly had been elsewhere when it happened. Margaret had defeated Deadly. **** If Deadly wept tears of frustration and humiliation, they did not last long.  The Angel of Death is unemotional.  Being the Angel of Death is not a suitable job for emotions. **** To the husband, an eternity has passed since Margaret said “You lose, Deadly”.  The husband still weeps.

 

 

Margaret 22 January 2023