The people who cried when they heard about Mirjana Pukanić's death can be counted on the fingers of one hand. No one will organize a commemoration, for sure. Former and current presidents, respected representatives – the crème de la crème of Croatian society – will be absent from the final farewell. Mirjana Jusup Pukanić was not a person who left us with works of art, wise thoughts or charitable deeds. She lived anonymously, except for a few turbulent months when she was attended to by ambulances and the police, and the media remained silent or only reported on the dark sides of her life. She died, logically, alone.
Still, we should think about it. How is it possible that a once extremely beautiful, above-averagely intelligent, and very wealthy person ends up abandoned by everyone – except for one friend who happened to be found too late and took pity on her. Why did a woman who could have had everything most of us only dream of – expensive things, travel, an exciting life, live unhappily and die miserably? Where and how do people lose their self-esteem and the will to live a life that can be called meaningful? Do we know this – do iPhones, social networks, nanotechnologies reveal this to us?
Will anyone wonder why, at one point, three ambulances arrived a day with the intention of taking her to a psychiatric hospital, and since her husband's death, while she was living completely alone, there was no need for any interventions?
The system was effective – she was taken to hospitals, tied to beds, snorted pills, then divorced against her will from her dead husband, then prosecuted for cocaine possession, the state attorney's office issued a statement and determined that she was not a victim of domestic violence... on the other hand, the inheritance hearing did not even begin, and to this day the same state attorney's office has not determined who was responsible for her forcible removal to Vrapče. And now they will happily archive the file and take one worry off their shoulders. If they even care about anything so ephemeral.
I'm almost certain that she didn't find the strength or the will to write about her own life. And the lives of many people she occasionally met or learned about from her famous husband. Maybe it's for the best. Because it would only make us all sick, just as it made us sick who learned many things with her that are carefully hidden from the public. I used to curse the day they brought her to my door. And then left her without looking back. It wasn't easy with Mirjana, and we didn't know how to reach her and restore her will to live. And we somehow distanced ourselves from her because she only listened to herself and didn't trust our advice.
She was rich in money and things, but she actually had nothing of value. She died penniless at 40 m2Are we going to wave our hands once again and say – who is to blame?!
Maybe now she has finally found the peace she deserves.
Goodbye, Mirjana.
