Well dear readers, it is not so often that I tell you what I do in any detail…….because it really is none of your business……..and is not the purpose of this blog.
However, here is a true tale published to make us all think about that primevil sense most of us have of right and wrong……..and doing what’s right, even when there is nothing in it for us.
As you will know from previous posts, I know “people” here in Odessa……those “people” happen to sit on both sides of the line when it comes to the law…….however both sides work together on numerous occasions……and here is such a tale.
I will not mention any names as this is a recent incident……but involves a babooshka born in 1929, the police, a prosecuter (who is one of the very few who is uncorruptable……as disliked by police and criminal alike) and the mafia…….but shows what can be done if you have access to the “right people” and are prepared to do something for someone else.
A friend of my good lady came to her and tells her a tale of woe relating to an old babooshka in Odessa who has 5 grand children. One of the grandchildren is a Lieutenant in the Odessa police and is the only person registered at babooshka’s apartment other than babooshka. This friend knows babooshka when from when they lived in the same apartment block years ago.
Babooshka still works, despite her age, dealing in plants and flowers, every day.
Registration at a premises here is like a will, when someone dies, those registered there inherit the apartment if the registration is permanent.
Suffice to say, the Lieutenant from the police stood to inherit her grandmothers apartment…..yes the police officer is a female.
For the past 3 months it appears she has been requesting babooshka to sign the documents to the apartment over to her…….her method of persuasion being beating to old woman half to death on a dialy basis. It seems waiing for the old lady to die was not timely enough. When babooshka’s daughter tried to halt what was going on she was also beaten quite severeley. Both of course, knowing how corrupt the system is claimed to be and knowing their daughter/granddaughter was police, thought there was nothing they could do…..as they did not know “people”.
Now my good lady is a sensative soul……unless you cross her, when she is an enemy you wished you never had…….and this tale played on her mind. It played on her mind so much that she met with the babooshka in question who was black and blue from head to toe. When she came home it was difficult to tell whether my good woman was more upset or livid…..but I can tell when something will not be allowed to drop.
Normally in such cases she would have gone directly to the “family” to sort it out……..and she is blood relations to the “family”…….so we have “family” family…….if you get me.
However this needed a little more thought to get a permanent solution.
I called the only genuine uncorrupt prosecutor I know in Odessa who agreed to meet babooshka, her daughter and us two days later. Babooshka stayed elsewhere for 2 nights with friends.
We arrive at the Prosecutors office at the agreed time with our blue and purple circa 1929 babooshka. In a theatrical effort, I advised babooshka to wear all the medals she had from WWII and the USSR days as we are approaching the 65th anniversary of WWII ending, thinking it may add a little sympathy from the prosecuters office. I needn’t have worried…….he went ballistic as soon as he saw her (as of course I had explained the circumstances to him two days before).
“Who is babooshka to you?” he asked. “Just a babooshka” was the reply……”but she is human just like you and me.”
Babooshka was then medically examined, photographed and the tales of horror related and recorded both from her and her daughter relating to the granddaughter in the police. We all then went outside for 20 minutes whilst a criminal case was drawn up……..and babooshka’s eyes nearly popped out of her head when the prosecuter came out to her to sign documents instead of summoning her back inside. Nobody in authority, she thought, would help and certainly not come to her in the street to sign official documents.
We have to remember that this woman is extremely old and her reading and writing are not brilliant……..as a small matter of WWII screwed up any education she was getting.
All along she kept asking my good lady why she was helping and old and stupid woman who would soon be dead. What ever happened to human kindness as being a good reason?
Anyway, charges were filed and the less than pleseant granddaughter was dragged from her own police station by the prosectures staff, interviewed, charged and remanded in custody that very same day……now no longer a police officer and is expecting a lengthy prison term.
All OK for babooshka to go home? Not quite. Apparently the next door neighbours were “unsocial” in their habbits, which of course the prosecuter could do little about…….so the “family” paid a visit and provided some………”advice”…….. about neighbourliness towards the old lady……..and despite the fact she was old and less that educated, she had “friends” who would get “very upset” if her life didn’t improve.
Today I have just been told her granddaughters registration at the apartment has been cancelled through the courts, she is still in prison and the neighbours are far more “civil”.
All’s well that ends well? Not quite. Babooshka now wants to pay for the help……as she says if she doesn’t pay the devil will pay……so I have charged the princely sum of a plant………as in a small green thing you put in a pot and water from time to time……and the things she spends her days toiling over at work.
Babooshka comes to deliver one of her plants tomorrow…….saves paying the devil it seems……unless I am the devil!
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