REMEMBERING JO

SHE WAS CERTAIN THERE HAD TO BE SOME OTHER EXPLANATION. IT WAS JUST NOT POSSIBLE FOR NATALIA KRUK TO BELIEVE THAT HER SISTER AND FELLOW POLICE OFFICER WAS DEAD.

Jo Kruk was 33, a supremely fit ultramarathon competitor, an adventurer, and a glowing image of perfect health

To the tired, overwhelmed Natalia, the death message had to be a miscommunication, a case of mistaken identity, even “a horrible joke” Woken, as she was, from her post-night shift slumber, she even wondered if she had wound up trapped in “a terrible dream”.

And circumstances had conspired to make the news even more gut-wrenching for Natalia to absorb. She was a long way from home, was staying in a country motel, had no immediate family support, and was at her least alert

Along with other cops, she had worked through the night on a COVID checkpoint in Naracoorte. In her motel room, she had just drifted off to sleep and was in a dream when loud knocking on her door woke her

Senior Sergeant 1C Rob Schaedel was the caring but unlucky carrier of the death message It was around 8am when the sleeping Natalia stirred, got up, and opened the door to him on that August morning in 2020

“He just had this very strange look on his face,” she remembers “I knew something wasn’t right I thought I was in trouble but then I thought: ‘I’ve done nothing wrong. ’

“He looked at me but then looked down and looked back at me. He just had a very worried look on his face and asked if he could come in I said: ‘Yeah, of course ’

“He came in and sat down and just said: ‘I’m sorry but Jo’s dead.’ I just couldn’t believe what was happening I just remember going: ‘What the hell?!’

The news had shocked Rob as well He had received a phone call and a request to give Natalia the death message He knew the sisters and had seen Jo out running only weeks earlier

Rob also knew, of course, that his message was going to be “a massive shock” to Natalia.

“When I went in and sat down, I could see the worry in her face,” he recalls. “She was obviously (by then) expecting not good news.

“I told her directly because that’s the best way to do it I said that her mum had found Jo that morning unresponsive We didn’t know too much more at that time ”

And the paucity of detail only worsened the grief for Natalia

“Outwardly she held it together,” Rob recalls “She contained (her emotion) as pragmatically as she could as we tried to work through what needed to occur. But you could see in her face she was destroyed by the news. ”

Rob told Natalia to get her belongings packed up and be ready to leave Naracoorte He intended to get her on a plane and back home to her mother and grandmother immediately

After he left the room, Natalia sat down and continued to think: “What the hell?!”

“I couldn't believe it,” she says “I thought: ‘No, it must be another Jo or must be someone else It’s not my Jo It’s not my sister ’ ”

In tears, she called her mother, Bozena, but now struggles to find the words to describe their emotional exchange.

With the “amazing” support of her big brother-like workmate, Sergeant Jason Hill, she boarded the Adelaide-bound police plane Once at the airport, Hill drove Natalia out to her northern-suburbs home where she and her mother fell crying into each other’s arms

“It’s just a look,” she explains “I looked at my mum, she looked at me, and it was just complete shock There was nothing behind the eyes

“It was just a case of trying to fathom what was happening. It’s like your soul has left your body and it’s just wandering around going: ‘What am I doing? What’s happening here?’ ”

FOR BOZENA, THE AGONIZING loss of her eldest daughter had come on top of a threat to her own life Diagnosed with cancer around a month earlier, she had undergone major surgery from which her daughters had helped her recover

“She’s a strong European woman,” Natalia says “I think that was her saving grace, but I think Jo was also her saving grace because she was just a beautiful, positive soul She never saw a negative in anything

“During mum’s recovery, Jo was right there. We both were, but Jo was really helping her to focus on the positives and the healing rather than the burden she was facing ”

Natalia understood, but still took weeks to accept, that Jo had gone The surviving Kruk women and grandma kept watchful, welfare-conscious eyes on one another It was important in those intense, grieffilled days and weeks that followed their suffocating loss

The women found some comfort in the warmth of well-wishers who expressed their sympathy and the love they felt for Jo.

Natalia speaks of the generous support of her Elizabeth police colleagues and highlights simple but highly meaningful gestures One was a photo – which her State Tac workmates had had blown up to poster size – of Jo rejoicing atop a mountain after a marathon

Condolence messages came to Natalia from people she had never met and, on social media, she saw “beautiful tributes” from around the world

Jo had competed in many overseas marathons. Among them was Northburn 100 Ultra Mountain Run in New Zealand, the Namib Desert Challenge in Africa, and the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in Europe

“These (well-wishers) were basically friends she’d met running all over the world,” Natalia says “I saw lots of Asian names because, as well as runs in Africa (and Europe), she did some in Thailand

“I didn’t even realize these people (sending messages) existed but she made a huge impact on everyone ”

But what staggered Natalia, and dozens of others, was that her sister, a healthy young woman with elite-level fitness, could simply die in her sleep.

It came to light that Jo had died of cardiac arrythmia, which is known to strike endurance athletes To Natalia, however, the death of her super fit, healthy, athletic sister, whom she loved so deeply, still seemed inconceivable.

“It’s something you can’t fathom,” she says. “We lived together (with Mum and Grandma) so I always knew she was an extremist with everything she did

“I’d still be snoozing in the mornings, 10 minutes before I had to leave for work Jo, on the other hand, would’ve been up for twoand-a-half hours on her stair climber or bashing the punchbag

“So, I thought: ‘Wow! If she’s so fit and looks after her body way better than I look after mine…’ It’s really scary ”

The challenge for the Kruk women was to find a way to cope with their all-consuming grief. They had stood up to adversity before but always with Jo standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them, contributing her renowned positivity

Natalia saw that she could “get bitter or get better” and wisely chose the latter. And that choice led her to one of her coping mechanisms, which was exercise

“Not anything extreme, like a 220km run in the desert,” she says, referring to Jo’s successful run in the Namib Desert Challenge in 2012

“I started just doing extra-long walks Or I’d leave my car for a service and jog back home about 10kms

“I did find that I was unintentionally steering myself in the same direction as Jo: embracing nature and looking after myself. ”

The healing qualities of exercise have served Natalia well but not as a cure-all. Even now, two-and-a-half years later, she thinks of Jo constantly and her emotional pain continues

But in circumstances in which she might glance at a photo of Jo and feel upset, she draws on her mental strength to “spin that around”

“It’s more of a really beautiful memory,” she explains “So, you just give it a couple of minutes and the tears often turn into a smile.

“You have your downfalls but then you just get back up. It’s like climbing a mountain but pausing in the middle just to catch your breath and then going again ”

SUPPORT FROM CLOSE FRIENDS, the police family, and overseas well-wishers was never likely to come as a surprise. What did leave Natalia and her family stunned was a $300,000 life insurance payment

It was a death benefit under the terms of the group life insurance policy the Police Association has long held to cover its members But like many other cops and their families, Natalia and Bozena had known nothing about the policy

“I couldn’t believe it (the amount we were to receive),” Natalia says. “I still can’t believe it. I still don’t think it’s real. It was such a huge amount. ”

After the necessary legal processes had wound up, Bozena received the payment in June 2021

“And it was a huge help,” Natalia says “But we didn’t touch it for a very long time It just sat there in Mum’s account It wasn’t that we didn’t want it, but it felt wrong for it to be there

“The money doesn’t take away the pain or balance out the fact that you’ve lost a family member But it really does assist in just helping build a new life.

“And if you want to commemorate a family member, you do need funds for that. The insurance policy, or the payment, gives you the absolute best way to do it ”

The Police Association has maintained a group life insurance policy to cover its members since 1992 .

Talk of death cover first came about after the stabbing murder of Senior Constable David Barr at Salisbury Interchange in 1990 The key concern was the plight of the suffering families of police officers who had died, on or off duty

One of the first to advocate for financial support for those families was now-retired chief inspector Nick Zuvich An idea he shared with then-association secretary Sam Bass was to set up a contribution scheme for members to pay into whenever a colleague died.

The Police Association considered the Zuvich suggestion but also researched and discussed various insurance options Then, in 1991, Bass proposed that the association become “the policy holder of an insurance scheme” with death cover for financial members

After that came a special general meeting in October 1991 when association delegates voted in favour of implementing a group life insurance policy.

On January 2, 1992, then-Police Association president Peter Alexander informed the membership that the cover was now in place His newsletter indicated that the payment in the case of a death would be $50,000

That figure would increase – to $104,000, $200,000 and $235,000 – between 2006 and 2012 . It rose to $300,000 in late 2012 .

Police Association committee member Sam Brain received the payment 20 years ago Her now late husband, Sturt detective Michael Nasalik, had died of gastric cancer She and Michael, then 33 and 36, were parents to two children under four

The payment had by then risen to $65,000, which Sam still considers “a significant amount at the time”

A large portion of the money helped Sam’s parents-in-law put a deposit on a block of land and relocate to be closer to her for support. The move was in line with Michael’s wishes.

“The balance of the funds was used to complete landscaping at my home, which I couldn't have done myself,” Sam recalls

“The GLI is very valuable at a time of insecurity Michael was aware of this fund being available and I know it gave him peace of mind that his family would be assisted financially

“I’ve been very grateful to the Police Association for providing me with that benefit. Knowing it’s there for all members in the future is reassurance in a time of need. ”

Police Association president Mark Carroll regards the group life insurance as one of the most important benefits the union provides its members

“It was always the smart decision by the committee of management to introduce death cover back in 1991,” he says “And we’ve always been determined to keep it in place

“Over all those decades, I’ve seen the burden of so many grieving families not eliminated but certainly lightened by such substantial payments.

“It’s also a comfort to members to know that, if the worst happens to them, their families will have solid financial support ”

Kruk received, she and Natalia did find a way to both commemorate Jo and start a new life. The Kruk sisters had lived all their lives with mother and grandmother in the family home north of Adelaide.

But, without Jo and grandma, who died in 2021, the spacious five-bedroom house came to bespeak “an emptiness” So, Natalia and her mother thought of the love Jo had had for the sea and her hope that she might one day live beachside

Thinking that the time had come to downsize anyway, Bozena decided to sell the family home and buy a house near the beach She and Natalia moved into it six months ago.

“Such a large sum of money like that ($300,000) just absolutely helped us to achieve exactly what we were after,” Natalia says

“Jo would’ve said: ‘Do what you want with that (money) It’s for you Go live your life. Enjoy.’ As she would always say: ‘The most important thing is to live in joy. ’

“And it has brought us joy, peace and happiness. And without that money we might not have been able to afford the house that Mum ended up buying

“Ultimately, our home is our haven It’s just this beautiful space and we love being in it We go on beach walks every single day ”

Another loss to the Kruk family might be unthinkable, but Natalia has reflected on the possibility of her own demise

“You can’t put a price on someone’s life with money,” she says. “But it really is a huge help to know that, if something were to happen to me, my family would have something to help start another life ” PJ

This award has been developed for police by police and nominations are sought from officers across the country.

While police work is inherently dangerous… some actions stand out.

Do you know someone who has performed an exceptional act in exceptional circumstances?

1. The nominee must be a sworn police officer from an Australian police jurisdiction.

2. Nominees must have undertaken an outstanding act of courage or bravery, by selflessly putting themselves in harms way to protect others, going well beyond the call of duty.

3. Where feasible, the incident should have occurred in the past twelve months, however exceptions could include if the matter is subjudice or if other unavoidable delays have occurred.

The online nomination form is available at policeweek.org.au/bravery-awards and close on 30 June 2023.

The National Police Bravery Awards will be presented in Canberra on 12 September 2023