Justyne Caruana (Labour Party)
Can you tell us about your mother in a few sentences?
My mother nearly died in order to give birth to me, and that says it all. She is my rock and my role model, so strong and determined and always putting family needs first. She is an artist, a perfectionist and beautiful both inside and out - she is simply perfect and always there for me.
What is the most valuable lesson that your mother taught you?
To be a good listener, to respect, love and be compassionate, to keep strong, to never give up and fight for what is right and for what I believe in.
One thing/object/smell/memory which you associate with your mother?
She smells of roses.
Did she influence your decision to become a politician and if yes, how?
No she did not - in fact she had suffered because of politics and wanted to protect me from it. In return, this motivated me to enter politics and, once I took the decision, she fully supported me and still does in every possible way.
How would you describe motherhood?
Motherhood makes me truly a person for others, experiencing what it means to love my children beyond imagination and to live for them.
How many children do you have and how old are they?
Josephine, who is 10, and Jean, who is seven, without ever forgetting the first two who never saw light.
Being a mother, what skills are necessary throughout motherhood?
With my children: to be a good negotiator in that we learn that everything we do can either earn rewards or face consequences. Listening and understanding skills make things easy and fun.
How does being a mother impact on your role as a politician?
I was elected to Parliament before I was married and had my children, and motherhood matured me and made me more sensitive and receptive to family and children issues. So the effect was very positive. However, the impact of politics on motherhood is much more difficult, not only with regard to time management but also the need for further protection due to the fact that our children are exposed and hurt simply because they are the daughters and sons of women and men who are in the public eye while serving their country and people.
Therese Comodini Cachia (Nationalist Party)
Can you tell us about your mother in a few sentences?
She can drive me up the wall in a few seconds but I couldn't live without her. This is because we have very different characters. I tend to question life much more than mum does. But she is also the person who has continuously supported me in life, irrespective of whether or not I decided as she would have preferred me to decide - whatever decisions I make in life.
What is the most valuable lesson that your mother taught you?
To get out there and live life. Mum was brought up with all the limitations society placed on women but, together with my father, they made sure I was brought up without these social limitations and always encouraged me to be myself, irrespective of whether I was female or male.
One thing/object/smell/memory which you associate with your mother?
Mum has a small cabinet full of stuff from before she was married and from the early years of her marriage. There is an old bottle of perfume in a beautiful box. I found this when I was a young girl and this box and the bottle fascinated me. My mum told me that it is actually a very old perfume bottle from before she was married. I think it is also a memory of her own mother. She also has a pair of old evening shoes which she had worn to a special family occasion. This small cabinet is still a fascination to me.
Did your mum influence your decision to become a politician? If yes, how?
Not directly, in that she did not tell me to go for it or not. But at the same time both my parents influenced this decision a lot because growing up they always told me that being a girl did not limit me in life choices. When I told my parents that I was to be a candidate for the Partit Nazzjonalista, my mother's reply was: "Ok, tell me what help you need from me."
How would you describe motherhood?
It is a beautiful daily experience. Every day I learn something from my daughter about life itself. Motherhood also means strength to me. Having a daughter gives me a lot of strength of character.
How many children do you have and how old are they?
I have one daughter who is 10 years old.
Being a mother, what skills are necessary throughout motherhood?
Hmmm - give me an exhaustive list of skills and I will say that you need them all, each one at different moments. Having a daughter means I have a person with her own character, personality, abilities, wants and wishes which are intertwined with my own life. I think of my daughter not as my extension, but as an individual with her own character and mind.
How does being a mother impact on your role as a politician?
Being a mother strengthens my resolve to make decisions which I can live with, without regret. It also makes me search out different positions and decide only after having done so. My daughter is very judgmental when it comes to decisions taken by politicians. She has her own thoughts of what we should be doing and how we should administer the country and she wants to give her reaction to issues that are being discussed in public.
Marlene Farrugia (Democratic Party)
Can you tell us about your mother in a few sentences?
My mum is a no-nonsense, very well-organised, disciplined and determined woman. She was born in an air-raid shelter in 1941 into a family of 12 siblings. She is one of the eldest. She lived in Zurrieq, a place full of fishermen and farmers. Her father was in the army and her mother ran her own little grocery shop. She was the only one of her siblings to receive a formal secondary education, and sit and pass her 'O' levels. She worked at Bim Ltd as a secretary but worked overtime on the steel furniture making machines. She stopped working after she was married, but worked as a seamstress from home and as supervisor in various factories on and off, whenever family finances required her more regular input. Her last job was as a housekeeper at Qawra Palace Hotel, which she left to take care of me and my sister's children. She married my dad, (her childhood boyfriend from the same village) when she was just 20, and had three girls whom she encouraged to get a tertiary and post-tertiary education, because (as she would say) 'they can take many things from you, but they cannot take your education'.
What is the most valuable lesson that your mother taught you?
She encouraged us to be free thinkers and independent women. My mum was always active in politics at local, district and party level. She always insisted that complaining about issues, situations and circumstances wouldn't get us anywhere. Working hard to bring about the necessary change and making it happen is what we should do. She saw political activism and participation as a very effective instrument and one which, if properly used, can propel change in the required direction. My mum was present and a front-liner in the 1958 riots and at all Mintoff's mass meetings. In the last election she attended a couple of the Forza Nazzjonali mass meetings. So yes, her interest in politics did rub off on me. We clashed big time in the 1980s but she later understood me better.
She taught me that where there is a will there is a way, that my battles were mine to fight and that I should stand up for myself ("if you come home and tell me you were beaten up at school, I will beat you up myself"). She injected me with the book bug, insisted that laziness is the root of all evil, (min jorqod ma jaqbadx hut) and that I will only have one chance to sit for my 'O' levels and she would not pay for them again - teaching me to shoulder full responsibility for my decisions and do away with any possible presumptuousness.
One thing/object/smell/memory which you associate with your mother?
When mum was at home there would be the fragrance of delicious Maltese dishes and baking always flooding our flat, spilling over into the street: baked imqarrun with potatoes on the side on Sundays...
How would you describe motherhood?
My motherhood had to be exercised in extraordinarily turbulent, extremely challenging and at times very difficult, circumstances. Still it was/is the happiest, most rewarding aspect of my life. I always made it a point to provide the best stability and happiness I could for my children.
How many children do you have and how old are they?
I have three children, two daughters aged 20 and 30 and a son aged 27: Marija, Jenny and Gregory.
Being a mother, what skills are necessary throughout motherhood?
Skills necessary for motherhood are endurance, preparedness for hard work and sacrifice, the ability to give and receive love and infinite patience.
How does being a mother impact on your role as a politician?
Being a mother helps me understand much better how the minutest political decision/activity done, undone, overdone, postponed - indeed, how ill or well-used political action - can have the biggest, most life-changing effect on any of us, from birth until death. Being a mum equips me very well with the emotional intelligence so crucial to our very often bereft-of-human-feelings, cold-blooded political decision-making. Once a mother, always a mother - whether you are a dentist, a politician, an entrepreneur... Having children and raising a family is the most enriching education. It enables you to practice a vocation, a profession, politics, in the most complete and fulfilling way.