Sometimes it has to be a tragedy to make us aware how fragile we are as a nation.
I want to congratulate the Maltese for digging their hands into their pockets, regardless of what political principle they harbour, and being ready, willing and able to help the unfortunate victims of the Tsunami tragedy.
At least where this “mystery of suffering” was concerned, we reached a consensus. Thank God that sometimes the impossible is possible!
In moments like these I want to be close to the children who found themselves orphans overnight. The young brave survivors who were lucky enough to survive the cataclysmic waves that brought naught but pain and anguish to their tortured souls. Who knows how many times they will relive this experience in their memory?
How they will wonder over and over again if all that happened to them was a nightmare and that one day they will wake up to find it was all a bad dream and their parents, brothers, sisters, aunts are all alive and fighting fit. Unfortunately the real tragedy of the tsunami has not yet happened but has still to happen. The “getting on with your life” when it seems as if a dozen bowling balls have settled on your heart.
The probability of having had an argument with the one you loved so dearly with no ample time to say, “I’m sorry”, because a tidal wave ended the bond between you.
The “guilt” feelings of looking at photographs of your mum, dad, brothers and sisters and thinking out loud why you had to live and they had to die.
Some might beg to differ but experience has taught me that when tragedy strikes, the real victims are the ones who are left behind, the ones who have to get on with the business of living, feeling as if a harpoon has entered their heart.
In truth, the tsunami catastrophe has yet to have serious repercussions on the survivors. It is indeed a pity that for all our generosity, we cannot help their emotions.
How do you console a 16-year-old child who lost her grandmother because her parents had died years before and is left to be the sole protector of two smaller brothers and one sister? How do you begin to explain to a young toddler that he is the only survivor of a family of four? How on earth do you explain to surviving parents that it’s useless walking along Navalady Beach morning and night in case a miracle might occur and their children might return, because it’s all a pipedream?
Religious as I am, I have always believed that it is useless praying for the dead, that the dead are in God’s hands. Praying for the living will be more effective. It is the
living who have to go on, immaterial of their feelings.
The experts are right to be concerned about their emotional health; this psychological trauma will live with them for the rest of their lives.
A Chinese proverb says that when a loved one dies, part of you dies with them. This applies to a natural death, let alone a horrifying disaster that claimed so many lives.
Alas, the devastating tsunami tragedy is still about to begin in the lives and hearts of the survivors. Not even money, which the Maltese gave so generously, will eclipse the total serration of their hearts through their loss. With tears in my eyes I hope and pray that God can.
Valerie Borg
VALLETTA