Here lives Maria and Michael Abateo. Maria is a bubbly fifty-year-old Maltese
lady. Full of life and laughter. You’d pass the house and not notice it,
except perhaps the flowers spilling down the front in total abundance. They suggest someone different lives
here. She loves clothes in bright
colours but has good taste so they make her seem younger than her years. Her husband jokes continually with her, but
it is tinged with admiration. Life
with Maria has brought surprises. Like
this week!
Maria
was driving up a steep street in Sliema and spotted a tourist pushing a woman
in a wheelchair. It was midday, the sun
was blistering hot and he was obviously finding the slope too much. Maria drove past but when she got to the end
of the road, she circled back round to the couple and stopped next to
them. She asked them where they wanted
to go. The man said, red faced and
panting, that they were heading to The Point, a shopping arcade. Maria told him she would take them
there. Maria has a huge jeep so they
all fitted in, wheel chair included.
While they drove, Maria found out that they were a married couple, Doug
and Claire from the UK. Doug had been Claire’s
nurse in hospital in the early days of her muscular dystrophy. Now, Claire was completely wheel chair bound
and even required a catheter. During, their
short journey Maria discovered that the couple were trying to find somewhere to
eat, so immediately Maria suggested taking them to her home. “I’ll make you something,” she offered
generously. They readily agreed and
Maria was as good as her word with a delicious Maltese meal ready in short
time.
After
the meal, the couple were tired and Claire asked if she could have forty
winks. Maria, once she understood what
forty winks meant, knew just the place, her large cool corridor with a light
blanket thrown over Claire’s wheelchair.
Within minutes, in the cool breezy corridor, she was sound asleep. Doug and Maria sat in the spacious living
room sofas chatting for a while. But an
afternoon siesta is an attractive proposition when you've been out in the sun
most of the morning. So, in no time at
all, Doug and Maria were sound asleep each on a large sofa in the shuttered,
darkened room.
When
Michael returned early from work shortly after, he was startled to discover a lady in a wheelchair in his entrance hall with his own favourite blanket tucked cozily around her. Tip toeing
into his living room he was nonplussed to discover his wife and a complete
stranger also sound asleep in his living room.
Only Maria, Michael laughed, could spring such surprises. He tells the story well of that day, with
animated gestures and eyebrows raised and both of them erupt in gales of
laughter. What a lovely couple, in a welcoming
home, with radiant faces and hearts.
