There are evenings that linger long after the applause fades, and last week's MARA Awards was one of them. I was unable to go last year and had no idea what to expect. This year I again received an invitation and was determined to make it as I wanted to find out what it was all about and to support Dr Lydia Abela's initiative.

The event was held at Xara Lodge on a cold evening. I soon realised that it was a dressy occasion and many women looked truly glamorous. I had dressed up for the cold. When Maltese women dress up, they truly do. And that night they did. There were several friends and acquaintances and plenty of people I knew.  Xara Lodge was beautifully decorated with flowers.

I walked into the hall expecting celebration; I left carrying something gentler and deeper - a renewed sense of what women in Malta and Gozo quietly build, day after day, without fanfare.

The Musea Orchestra provided music in the background. It was full house. There were short but significant speeches by those who received the awards and others who presented them. The organisation was impeccable, the venue perfect.

Towards the end of the ceremony Dr Abela's speech set the tone. She looked most elegant in a black sheath dress with a contrasting white ornament - the effect was striking. Her simple beauty is a relief after the enhanced looks with botox which some women seem to think makes them look better.

She spoke not in slogans but in a steady, grounded way, reminding us how far we have travelled as a country, and how much of that journey has been shaped by women who simply kept going, many of them with children to bring up.  "When a woman believes in herself, nothing can stop her," she said - a line that felt less like rhetoric and more like a truth she has witnessed again and again.

But the real heart of the evening was on the stage.

Fifteen women standing shoulder to shoulder - different ages, different vocations, different stories - yet united by the same quiet determination. Some lead or set up companies, some shape culture, some heal, some teach, some write, some carry others through their darkest hours. None of them asked for recognition; all of them deserved it.

And then there was the moment that silenced the room: the Lifetime Achievement Award to Sr M. Adele Baldacchino.

Eighty‑six years old, leaning on her crutch, she crossed the stage with the same humility that has marked her entire life. A nun who spent decades in voluntary service, not because it was expected of her, but because she believed that kindness is a duty. When she was embraced on stage by Dr Abela, who exudes warmth, the audience clapped especially hard  - not out of ceremony, but out of gratitude. It felt like Malta saying thank you to a lifetime of quiet, steadfast goodness.

These are the women who rarely make headlines, yet shape the country more than we realise.

As I watched them, I thought of the Prime Minister's wife speaking about her daughter - about seeing the future in the courage of a fourteen‑year‑old girl. Perhaps that is the real meaning of evenings like this: not competition, not ranking, but continuity. One generation lighting the path for the next.

We often say Malta is small. But nights like this remind me that our strength has never been measured in size. It lies in the people - women and men - who choose to build, to care, to lift others, to believe that equality is not a slogan but a daily practice.

I was sitting next to Maria Muscat of Neumee and suddenly her name was called;  she had received an award. She shot up all the way to the stage, as light as a feather, as elegant as always.

fter the event was over, many stayed for drinks and canapés and music. It was past my bedtime and I left quietly into the dark and cold night.

I knew with a quiet certainty that the next chapter of this country will be written by many hands, and women will be at the centre of it - not by concession, but by merit.

Thank you Dr Abela for starting this event last year. She quietly get things done. This is a meaningful contribution to International Women's Day. I don't agree with those who say that Women's Day is frivolous or that women's day is every day. Good things happen. If nothing else, women come together, meet, and network on different occasions.