I stayed at home watching Xarabank while my husband was taking part in the ‘Maratona bir-Roti’ on Friday, 9 April. When Eileen and Hector were on the sofa, I split my sides laughing. Hector, you were great and I love you for being such a funny guy in the most simple and natural way.

Enter Grace Borg with her daughter Sarah who states for the second time, publicly, that her daughter is still alive not only because of people’s prayers, but because she wagged her finger at the Virgin Mary and she fought and did what she had to do with the doctors and staff. So what does that make people like us who have lost their children – losers? We didn’t fight enough for our children? Ask anyone who works at Mater Dei and they will tell you how much we fought and prayed. Our son collapsed, but survived when he was only two weeks old and premature, but eventually he was called to the Lord not because of the condition he had but because of negligence after contracting a common urinary tract infection. I had to accept that this had to be the way that he had to go and that God did not want him to suffer any more because, although his condition was improving, he had already had over 29 operations! God must have seen what we couldn’t.

No, Grace, you didn’t learn your lesson from your ordeal – your daughter is still alive because God chose to keep her here with you! Humble yourself and realise that our lives are in His hands and, no matter how much you fight and pray, at the end of the day, His will be done!

I am such a positive person (as are you) that after losing my youngest child, Daniel, the one and only son whom I adored and loved more than anything in the world, I convinced my husband to set up an organisation to help other sick children. I fell into a deep depression and even when I thought the world would be a better place without me, I still did not jump off the cliff as I planned many a time, because I felt that my actions would hurt my other two children. I clawed myself out of the debilitating depression and, in spite of all the pain, I still try to do what I can, not only for sick children but also for any child, especially the unfortunate ones.

The biggest pain to overcome was that of thinking that I didn’t do enough. I will never forget the night when I tried to claw the wall of my bedroom and cried and screamed so much that I thought maybe I could cry the pain away and fill the black hole that was in the centre of my being. But you know what? No matter how much I cried, the pain returned and I had to find a way to live with it. During your interview with Lou Bondi that same week, Pippo Psaila summed it up and told you rightly that the saying “Time Heals” is not true; what happens is that you have to learn how to live with the pain. Pippo also told you that you were wrong to think that Sarah was still with you because you fought for her. And yet, you repeat the same thing another time!

So in the end, after laughing so much, I finished the night crying my eyes out because you rubbed acid into my wound. If you were in my shoes, you would realise that what you believe is not right, and while I do not want to interfere with what you believe, I kindly ask you not to repeat such a thing in public again for the sake of those who have lost loved ones.

Maria Delicata

SWIEQI