Kiss and Communion

Hundreds of people filled San Ġwann parish church yesterday to witness a very special little girl’s big day.

Shezyan Zammit received her First Holy Communion aged five after getting Curia permission ahead of chemotherapy to remove a brain tumour.

For one, magical day, Shezyan got a taste of life as a princess. Her parents have often struggled to pay the rent while putting food on the table and paying €50 a week for Shezyan’s numerous medications.

The ecstatic girl, who looked the picture of innocence in her white dress, saw two of her greatest dreams come true: receiving Holy Communion and seeing her parents marry. Vince Carl and Marisa Zammit had a civil wedding and their plans to marry in church last July were disrupted by the girl’s illness.

Beaming, the little girl yesterday held her parents’ rings as they recited their wedding vows.

Accompanied by animators dressed as her favourite Disney heroines and her friend Isaac Micallef, six, as Prince Charming, Shezyan was escorted down a red carpet to a horse-drawn carriage.

The party trotted to the reception hall, decorated with balloons, teddy bears and, naturally, princesses.