Dear only sister of mine,

Today is your birthday and normally I would not sound out my best wishes to you for all to see, but today is not a normal other birthday for you is it? Tomorrow your husband, you and yours truly will fly over to England where a major operation will be performed on you on Monday. I know that you are not thinking about your birthday today but the operation itself and its aftermath.

If only it were a day like past birthdays when I would call you on the phone and wish you well and relive moments of when mum and dad were alive because they made such a great issue out of birthdays, especially mum who always referred to her two daughters as il-kbira and iz-zghira.

Honey, these past few weeks have been a nightmare and there was many a time when I wished I was having a bad dream but it is not. It is reality and though I know that your wonderful husband, your kids, your friends and myself have been a great comfort to you, I can imagine the horrendous thoughts that keep turning in your mind.

I have often asked myself why bad things seem to happen to good people. Do you remember when we were kids, how we used to quarrel until we drove poor mum berserk? How I loathed it when you somehow got to learn one of my secrets and rushed to tell mum about it. How magisterial I used to act towards you just because i was eight years older than you were. You were always the quiet one, the obedient one, as a child you wouldn’t say boo to a goose.

We may have been sisters and had the same blood type of mum and dad but compared to you, it seems as if I was born and bred in a firework factory! You were always such a good child, such a good person, disliking people who passed their time of day by belittling others.

This is what I admired most about you sis – your loyalty to family and friends, your capability for being a friend for life to people you cared about. No wonder you found the same support in your time of need because you always gave it in return.

My sister, my beautiful sister, how i wish I had the ability to make things right for you instead of leaving it in the hands of others. Come Saturday 18 April we go to England, but we do not go alone. The extra “baggage” we carry will not be in our hands but in our hearts and mind – we will carry God with us.

God will be with you all the way and my faith in Him is so strong that I believe that though a surgeon will be operating on you, it will be HIS hands which will actually perform the operation and pull you through safe and sound. Happy birthday, today is one birthday that I wanted you to read about in this newspaper.

Valerie Borg

Valletta