Small Ironies- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED-

One evening while on desk duty a lady came in to see if she could get some assistance.  She looked to be in her mid 60’s.  She had a small frame and a tired face that had likely been attractive in years gone by.  She slumped into the chair next to my desk and began to tell her story. 

She was retired.   She and her husband had moved into a condominium that belonged to the Presbyterian Church.   I knew the facility well. They sold the units to members who usually spent many years on a waiting list.  They were able to purchase their unit at under market price but when they decided to move or passed the unit had to be sold back to the church for the purchase price. 

The building was located in a premier beach resort with spectacular views of the Gulf of Mexico.  It had amenities usually reserved for the wealthy; an in-house clinic, full time nursing staff, a mini-bus for outings and shopping runs, a limo service, concierge service, room service if you wanted to eat in your apartment or a full-service dining room for those who wished to socialize at mealtime. 

The grounds were always well maintained with lots of flower gardens and beautiful lawns.  In the back was a café for alfresco lunches and a boat dock.  It was truly a champagne lifestyle on a root beer budget.  The problem getting in was how long it took for your name to rise to the top of the waiting list. 

They had moved from ‘up north’.  Leaving behind all they knew, their home of many years, all their friends and family for the opportunity to spend those precious retirement years in this dream place.  They had just enough money to live comfortably if they didn’t do anything foolish with their modest nest egg. 

They were just settling into their dream lifestyle to enjoy their sunset years.  But it was not to be.  Her husband passed away within a few months of moving in.  She resigned herself to a comfortable widowhood. So, she went on trying to enjoy her daily life in the lap of luxury without her lifelong partner and her family hundreds of miles away.  It was lonely but comfortable.

Within a few months she received the call every mother dreads.  Her daughter had been murdered.  She was beaten to death by the boyfriend who fathered her only grandson.  Could she come and take custody of the baby boy? 

She immediately responded to the call.  Packed a few things and drove north to take custody of the child, a toddler of about 3 years.  It was just the two of them now. 

After settling affairs for her daughter there was nothing in the way of money or insurance.  There were just a few toys for the boy, some clothing, and mementos of her daughter.  The baby’s daddy was in jail, would be tried and, if there was any justice, spend his remaining days in prison.  Or so she thought.

She packed up the child and headed home.  When she arrived she was swiftly informed the condominium was adult only and that she would have to move.  Since the condominium had to revert back to the church for ownership and resale she had to draw on her savings to rent a small apartment and get the child into daycare. 

She packed her belongings from her dream home and moved them to the only apartment she could afford on her budget.  After the condominium reverted back to the church she ended up with a few thousand dollars as it had been mortgaged.

The money would run out fast so she checked around for options.  She discovered the child qualified for some social security survivor benefits.  She filed and received them after some government wrangling.  She had spent quite a bit on the assistance of an attorney to get declared the child’s guardian. 

Finally, after a couple years, she had organized her life, the boy was about to start first grade.  They lived modestly on a tight budget, she really relied on the child’s social security benefits, but they had each other.  As long as she had her grandson she could fill the ache in her heart for the loss of her daughter. 

She kept their tiny apartment in a not so great complex clean and tidy, but it was a far cry from the luxury condo lifestyle she’d had just a wisp of.  In those few years she had lost her husband, her daughter, her dream home and her dream lifestyle.  But she had the boy.  A sweet child who had come to her extremely shy and under developed.  It had been discovered that he was likely abused but no one could say for sure.  The mother dead, the child too young, the boy’s father (and suspected abuser) had lawyered up.

In fact he must have gotten a pretty good lawyer.  While this lady had been trying to make a new life for her and the boy the criminal justice system had been grinding slowly forward on the homicide case.  To her amazement the boy’s father had claimed self defense.  He was eventually acquitted.  The case eventually ended up one of those ‘he said – she dead’ injustices that happen all too often. 

When the trial was over and he was released. He lived on the streets and drifted aimlessly.  He was pretty much a bum.  Then one day he got a really brilliant idea.  He decided he wanted his son, the meal ticket.  He tracked them down, got a lawyer and filed for custody.

The lady found herself fighting for her grandson.  Once again the court system did its thing.  Within a few months she lost the boy in the custody battle.  It was heartbreaking for her and a trauma to the child but hey, the court did its job.  Then she discovered that the boy’s father had filed for the child’s death benefits and received them.

So now this lady had lost her husband, lost her daughter, lost her dream retirement home, lost her grandson, lost her income and lost her life savings.  She found herself hundreds of miles from her home town, in an expensive Florida retirement community she could no longer afford. And she could not afford to move back to her home town.    

Irony?  The man, who murdered her daughter, got away with it.  The man who abused her grandson, killed the only witness, got away with it.  The man who took her grandson filed for the child’s benefits and got away with that too. 

She knew when she sat down to talk to me that there was nothing I would be able to do to help her fix this mess.  I think she was just tired, lonely and fed up with the whole system.  She just needed to talk to someone.  She just wanted to tell her story.  She just wanted someone to tell her she was not crazy.  She just needed someone to see how she got shafted by the system.

As she walked out the door all I could do was wish her better fortune in the future.  It’s been over 20 years since that night.  I still wonder where she went, how she did, if life ever gave her any breaks.  I still wonder about the boy. 

He would be pushing 30 by now, if the daddy didn’t kill him.  Sometimes I think the criminal justice system sucks, and for that matter the civil court system and the welfare system, they all suck! 

That’s the first time it occurred to me that no good deed goes unpunished.