Mikallef Buhagiar's love for Siggiewi Homes

Karmen Mikallef Buhagiar was a veritable lady. She was dutifully remembered in a soirée held in her honour on February 23.

Professor Oliver Friggieri exalted her human and Christian virtues. I subscribe to the description he gave of the lady.

I would like to put on record Karmen's unfailing concern, indeed love, for Id-Dar tal-Providenza. Come October we would expect her visit. She used to come to Malta every October on "The Poet's" anniversary.

She held all Maltese writers in honour. Dun Karm she venerated. In Il-Poeta, as she used to call him, she saw epitomised everything Maltese.

Karmen Mikallef Buhagiar had a soft spot for Id-Dar tal-Providenza. She would come with a basket full of neatly prepared envelopes with donations from her many friends in France and in England, and from her own family, as well as a good amount of used and accurately categorised stamps.

She would enquire after the welfare of our residents and have also some useful advice for "Yours truly" against possible tension and burn-out. She had worked as a nurse in Egypt and was a caring person by temperament.

Her manners were refined. She used to be shocked, nay, scandalised when she met a lack of good manners, a commodity not always easily available.

Karmen's thoughtfulness towards the Siggiewi homes was symptomatic of her character. It betrayed the Christian virtues recalled by Oliver Friggieri. She was always regardful when talking about others. She was very sensitive to suffering and need.

She had an inborn righteousness, the simplicity of a child and a deep appreciation of what was good in others, always visibly gratified by the good she saw in Malta and the Maltese. Malta should carve her name with pride.