A Tale of Confusion, Delusion and, of Course, The Mafia
The Beginning
Pauline Dakin was nine-years-old when her mother, Ruth, loaded up her and her younger brother, Ted, into their Volkswagen camper to leave their home in Vancouver to go on a family trip to Winnipeg. Over 1,000 miles away. On the other side of the country. They never returned. Pauline and Ted never got a chance to say goodbye to anyone. Not even their father, Warren, who Ruth had divorced several years earlier on account of him being an abusive alcoholic. Even with the suddenness of the move, Ruth refused to explain why they moved.
This move was the trigger a string of strange events. For one, a man by the name of Stan Sears had begun to be more and more of a constant in there lives. He had been a pastor at a church in Vancouver and had counseled Ruth as part of a program that counseled family members of alcoholics. Ruth had even worked as Stan’s secretary at his church. Whenever they moved, Stan seemed to move with them, living separately with his wife. After some time, Stan became a sort of father figure in Pauline and Ted’s lives.
But that was the very least of the weird happenings. One day Ted and Pauline came home from school to find Ruth throwing out all the food in the fridge. When Pauline would question her mother’s actions, she just got the same reply time and time again, “I’ll tell you when you’re older.” One time, the entire family had to wash and scrub their feet in the bathtub and wear plastic bags over their socks. “I’ll tell you when you’re older.” Once in the middle of the school week, Ruth suddenly surprised Pauline and Ted with a mysterious trip to a cabin in the middle of the woods, where Stan also accompanied them. “I’ll tell you when you’re older.” 4 years later they moved to Winnipeg in the same sudden manner as before.
Fast forward 10 years
Pauline is 23 and an aspiring journalist. Then, she gets a weird call from Ruth asking to meet at a remote motel. When Pauline arrived, Ruth met her outside of the room and without hesitation removed all of Pauline’s jewelry and puts them in a plastic bag. Before Pauline can ask questions, Ruth opens the door to the motel room to see Stan sitting out the bed waiting. It was then that Pauline was hit by the second biggest revelation of her life: Her family and Stan were being hunted by the mafia and in the process Ruth and Stan had fallen in love, but had never acted on their attraction. Stan explained that, apparently, Pauline’s father Warren had been a mobster in Vancouver and when Ruth left him, the mafia put a “contract” on her life. Stan, as it turns out, also had a contract on his life but for a separate reason. He had been giving therapy to a mobster that wanted to leave his criminal life behind, but when it was exposed the mob assassinated the man Stan was counseling and put a “contract” on Stan’s life as well. When Stan and Ruth met they realized their similar situation and ran away together without telling anyone so the mob couldn’t stop them hence their sudden move from Vancouver. Stan further enlightened Pauline by explaining more of all the weird happenings. When they had to scrub their feet and wear bags, Stan had received intel from a secret government agency who helped protect victims of the mafia that their floor had been sprinkled with poison. When Pauline came home to Ruth throwing out all the food it was because Stan had gotten word that their food had been poisoned. When they took a surprise trip to the wilderness, it was because it was believed that the mob was planning to make a direct attempt on their lives. This entire time Stan had been living in government-sponsored villages for protecting mafia targets called “Weird Worlds.” Ruth was going to move into a “weird world” with Stan.
A New Life
Pauline broke up with a serious boyfriend and moved to a “weird world” with Stan and Ruth. She lived in constant fear. She kept a radio in her car in case of an emergency. Nothing was ever the same
In 1990, Pauline’s brother Ted got married, and Pauline’s father (Warren the mobster) and her aunt were in attendance. Before the wedding, Stan explained to Pauline and Ruth that Warren and her aunt were not, in fact, who they seemed to be. They were doppelgängers or as Stan called them, “doubles.” They had, through careful examination of photos and home videos, used plastic surgery to make themselves resemble Ruth and Pauline’s family members, becoming in many ways indistinguishable both physically and in personality. This was a strategy often believed to have been used by Hitler, Castro and other dictators. When actually encountering these doubles at the wedding, they were astonished that even the bone structure of their supposed loved ones was perfectly copied. They were stunned.
Years past and the Dakin family continued to live in constant fear. Pauline became suspicious of Stan and his stories. Things stopped making sense so she decided to take matters into her own hands and make things clearer. She set up a sting. She contacted Stan and Ruth on her emergency radio saying that someone had broken into her house. No one had. Stan explained that the secret government agency that he had been in contact with had broken in to remove a dangerous package left by the mob. Again, no one had actually broken in. Pauline confronted Stan but he never broke his story. Ruth defended him with all her might, insisting that she was being delusional and crazy. Pauline was so so angry. Her main father figure had made her life one giant deception and her mother, the most trustworthy person she had in her life, was defending this liar.
The Aftermath
Pauline and Ruth’s relationship was exceedingly damaged after that, but when Pauline had kids, their relationship slowly healed. Pauline even took care of her mother in the last year of her life. Stan died in 2005 and Ruth died in 2010. She believed and loved Stan until her last breath.
Pauline later discovered (after consulting lots of specialists and experts) that Stan was suffering from a rare mental disorder called delusional disorder. Those suffering from it seem completely normal on the outside, but they are not able to discern what is real and what is imagined. Knowing this helped Pauline in the process of forgiving and accepting all that she went through.
In 2017, Pauline wrote and published a memoir called Run, Hide, Repeat, and has had several offers to adapt it for the screen but Pauline is reluctant to accept on account of fears of it being turned into a soapy story. Pauline has two kids and is a professor of journalism in Halifax, NS.
