Dealing with the death of a parent is never easy, but for sisters Marlene and Caroline Fenech, the passing of their father has been harder to accept after only finding out he died of COVID-19 while planning his funeral.

Holding back tears, the twin sisters, who both live abroad but have since returned to Malta to be with their family, told Times of Malta how their 81-year-old father had only tested positive when tests were carried out posthumously.

Tests for the virus carried out some days before his death had come back negative, they said.

“We were already making funeral arrangements, in the limited way that we could since restrictions were still in place, when we received a call saying it would be handled by the authorities because our father died of coronavirus.

“We couldn’t believe it because just days before his death we had been told he tested negative for the virus,” Caroline said.

According to her sister Marlene, their father had been admitted to Mater Dei hospital in January and then moved to Karin Grech hospital for further treatment the following month.

Marlene, who last saw her father around the time he was moved to Karin Grech hospital, said he was doing relatively well at first and though his doctor had said he was vulnerable, he seemed to be getting better.

I knew something was wrong with him even if the tests kept coming back negative

“But then, all of a sudden, whenever we called to him via Skype, we could see that he was getting weaker. At one point he had to also have an oxygen mask put on,” Marlene lamented.  At this point, around the end of April, thousands around the world had contracted the virus, including some 480 patients in Malta.

Caroline admits that, just like everyone else around the world, she was worried about the virus and its impact, especially on vulnerable people like her elderly father.

“When we started to see him get weaker, naturally we asked whether our father had coronavirus though the Karin Grech staff said they had tested him twice and the tests had turned out to be negative on both occasions,” Caroline said.

The twins insist that before he passed away, they spent their days and nights worried about their father, waiting anxiously for the short time-window during which they could call the hospital via Skype to check up on him.

They claim the nurses there would only let them speak to their father if they called during the stipulated time, even if he happened to be asleep when the call went through.

“It was very hard, knowing he was getting weaker and not being able to see or speak to him. I knew something was wrong with him even if the tests kept coming back negative,” Marlene said.

On May 4, Marlene called her father in the afternoon and before she hung up the 81-year-old uttered the words “I love you” through his oxygen mask. These would become the final words Marlene’s father uttered to her as he died at around 11.30pm that night.

The health authorities announced that an 81-year-old man had died overnight on May 5 but provided little additional information, stating only that he had other underlying medical conditions, including heart, respiratory and liver problems.

“We’re heartbroken because our father’s final moments will always remain a mystery. We don’t know if he died in pain, whether he was alone, whether he had been given any medication… nothing.

“Finding out he had coronavirus after he died has been an even harder blow on us all,” said Caroline, who had last visited her father while on holiday in Malta in November.

Although it has now been a month since their father died, the twins say they have been unable to move on, saying the fact so many things remain unknown made it even more difficult.

A total of nine patients have died of the novel virus since it reached Malta on March 7.