# Foreign Girl Forever

- Link: https://www.ha-makom.co.il/article/fishbain-lily-english
- Published: 2014-06-13T11:03:35+03:00
- Author: מנהל האתר

Lily Odergo was born in Tel Aviv, and it is where she lived and died. Twenty five
difficult and insulting years on the margins of society and outside of it reached
an end last Friday morning, likely from complications of preeclampsia. Her youngest
son, Ben-El William, born last Sunday, is in the neonatal department at Ichilov 
Hospital. Her five-year-old son Michael is with friends from the community who are
trying to help. Francis, Lily's partner for the past three years, wanders the halls
of the hospital, fluctuating between courteous smiles at consolers to crying spells,
anger, and helplessness. It is hard to imagine an end more sad and senseless to 
the life of a woman who, from the moment she was born, simply tried to survive here.

Lily was born in 1989, the second daughter to illegal migrant workers from Ghana
who had arrived in Israel a few years prior. Her parents had left their older daughter
in Ghana. Lily's father died when she was young. Her mother remarried and had two
boys, Samuel and Isaiah. During the large-scale deportation of migrant workers in
the early 2000s, Lily's step-father and brother Samuel were deported. Since then
the remaining members of the family tried to attain legal status in Israel; they
were here when the two deals on migrant workers' children were struck, and were 
always left out. The reason: Their mother entered Israel illegally.

![](/sites/default/files/photo1.JPG)

Lily's mother died last year and was buried in Emek Hefer. Lily's younger brother
was sent to a boarding school when he was young. Six months ago Lily's dream finally
came true: Her status in Israel was approved, she was on her way to becoming a citizen
of the place where she was born, the only country she had ever known. Legal status
also ensured citizenship for Michael, as well as for the unborn child she had conceived
with Francis, who she had met in the meantime. For a moment it seemed like their
lives were starting to fall into a place. But only for a moment.

My relationship with Lily is personal, and therefore my writing will be in the first
person. We met for the first time when she was 8 and I was starting to report on
migrant workers in Tel Aviv for _Ha'Ir._ The first “illegal” classroom I visited
was that of Nana Ofoko, who taught children of varying ages in a small room in the
Old Central Bus Station. Lily was one of three graduates; a happy girl who smiled
a lot, she learned to read and write in English while the teacher took care of babies
and played with younger children. The classes were new then; the system barely recognized
these children.

When we met again she was twelve. We interviewed her for “The Third Eye,” a television
program. Her living conditions were tough and she continued to fight for her place
in her middle school class, for her musical future that she and her music teacher
believed in, and for the hope that her older sister – whom she had never met – would
come to Israel from Ghana and together they would open a small salon specializing
in African braids.

We met for the last time nearly two years ago. I heard that her mother was sick 
and I came to her home on HaGdud Ha'Ivri Street. Lily was 23-years-old and had a
three-year-old son named Michael whose father had been deported to Ghana and disappeared.
After all those years she almost stopped believing that she would get legal status
in Israel. Her file was stuck somewhere in the Interior Ministry and she stopped
making plans. They lived in decrepit conditions, in a crowded apartment with no 
light, in an asylum seekers building. Lily complained about them, the new foreigners.
She understood that she was stuck somewhere in the middle.

In the meantime, Lily had been filmed for the documentary movie “Last Stop,” directed
by Julie Shles, about life at Tel Aviv's New Central Bus Station and its surroundings.
Shles, completely dedicated to her heroes, became part of Lily's life, talked to
her every few days even after the filming, and waited with her for the birth of 
her second son. Lily did not attend the film's premier at the DocAviv Film Festival.
She said she had edema and wasn't feeling well.

Shles called me that morning and told me that Lily was hospitalized and that there
complications from the pregnancy. She told me she was going to the hospital with
the priest and promised to update. Half an hour later she called again crying, finally
able to say two words: “Lily died.”

The details that I'll provide are what we were able to ascertain that day at Ichilov
Hospital, in  conversations with the medical staff that treated Lily and with the
hospital's director, Professor Gaby Barbash.

Lily came to Ichilov on Sunday evening, able to walk, but feeling very ill. She 
was 37 weeks pregnant. She was hospitalized immediately and was found to have preeclampsia
that the medical staff deemed “something we'd never seen here” – apparently rare,
and very severe. She had a cesarean section that night, and after the surgery her
condition seemed good. Preeclampsia is supposed to pass within five days of the 
birth, as its source is in the placenta, which is delivered with the baby. Francis
says that they looked at their baby boy together and Lily tried to determine who
he looked like. Less than 48 hours later her condition deteriorated, and she had
brain edema. She was brain dead the next day. Her partner and other members of the
community didn't understand the medical staff's hints, and continued to believe 
that Lily would soon be fine. But she wasn't, and Friday morning her heart stopped
beating.

![](/sites/default/files/Screenshot_0.png)

A-12 years old Lily being interviewd for a documentary

There is almost no doubt that she had preeclampsia in the weeks preceding the birth–
complaints of edemas and migraines are common symptoms. It is unclear how rigorously
the pregnancy was monitored. Lily was significantly overweight and apparently did
not go to the doctor regularly. Though it wasn't classified as such, in light of
her history, this was a high-risk pregnancy and should have been treated as such.
When she arrived at the hospital she didn't even have pregnancy-related documents
or information about her previous pregnancy and delivery, which were also complicated,
and which could have assisted in understanding the risks.

Francis lashed out at the medical staff, which alerted Barbash, claiming that Lily
was neglected for 48 hours until the onset of edema. At present there is no proof
of this. According to staff reports, initially she seemed fine, when things deteriorated
she underwent a CT, was given medication to treat the edema, and it was apparently
reasonable to assume that the preeclampsia would subside.

During our last meeting Lily talked about her mother's illness: “We had a lot of
problems and misunderstandings regarding many issues including her illness – we 
told her to go to the hospital many times and she didn't want to. Because she doesn't
have citizenship, or because of money, she feared taking care of herself. We couldn't
deal with it all. Up until a year ago she still cleaned houses, until she couldn't
any more. Her situation is so bad now because she didn't get medical treatment.”

As a type of self-fulfilling prophecy, or of fate repeating itself – Lily also died
from neglect. There is almost no doubt that her death could have been prevented,
if the preeclampsia had been diagnosed and treated earlier.

Her body remained in the Intensive Care Unit until Pastor Combert, who also buried
her mother, arrived. The priest entered the room and spoke to Lily in a mixture 
of English and a Ghanaian dialect about her mother, about her younger brother who
grew up in boarding schools and his poor condition, and about Michael. In our terms,
these are moments to talk about an eternal reunion between the dead and protecting
the living, but it is unclear what the priest meant.

Because such a short time elapsed from when she was granted her formal status, Lily
had not yet become a citizen, and it is unclear how this will affect her burial.
When the priest left the room he asked to delay the process until approvals arrived
from her close family members in Ghana regarding her burial. Her brother Samuel,
who was deported with his father, lives in Ghana, as does her older sister, about
whom Lily dreamed her entire life and will never meet. The hospital refused to to
keep the body for more than two or three days, despite the Ghanaian community's 
request.

Francis, who broke down suddenly on the way to the elevator and cried until his 
eyes were red, does not yet know how he will raise a newborn baby, and Michael, 
on his own. In the meantime Shles has appealed for any possible assistance, and 
helps take care of Michael. Mesila, the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality's Aid and Information
Center for the Foreign Community, knew Lily well and has promised to stand by the
family and try to help.

The family that I met in 2000 – the mother, Lily, and her two younger brothers –
fell apart rather quickly. One was deported, one is at a boarding school, and Lily
grew apart from her mother, who died alone. Now Lily leaves behind a family whose
chances of survival are not much better than those she had. The awful cycle of neglect,
life on the fringe of the margins, the law that determines who is eligible for (
certain) treatment and who is worthy of nothing – all of these seized another victim.
Is there a chance that Lily's two children will not repeat their family story?

**On a personal note, my relationship with Lily stemmed beyond normal work and symbolized
much more for me than one girl's story. I chose to conduct my last interview with
her as my swan song before leaving _Yedioth Ahronoth_, and in my parting words I
promised to stay in touch with her and Michael. I was used to writing about injustices
and suffering and facing the system, but this case – of such absolute alienation,
ten minutes from home – was the end. The tragic end, in her case, is painful in 
a way that is hard to describe here. There are moments when even those who make 
a living off of words recognize their futility.**

**Goodbye Lily. I hope you're finally somewhere better**

translation: Orna Dickman

[לקריאת הכתבה בעברית ](http://www.ha-makom.co.il/article/fishbain-lili)

An excerpt from the documentary TV show- "Third Eye", the episode- "Lily". 

An excerpt from the documentary movie "Last Stop", directed by Julie Shles. For 
more, [click here](http://www.ha-makom.co.il/article/fishbain-lili).

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