Treatment of the departed

I have just returned to Malta to attend my brother's funeral and am sorry to inform readers that I am not happy with the way we Maltese treat our departed loved ones.

I would however like to thank the hospital staff at Mater Dei for all the excellent care they gave my brother during his long illness.

The very disappointing and upsetting part was when my family and I went to the mortuary to pay our respects before the funeral.

To all my family's shock and horror we were subjected to seeing my brother set to rest in a shabby oversized, creased black suit.

We had arranged at the hospital to have my brother dressed in a brand new suit shirt and tie.

And he should have looked immaculate. When he was alive he was always smartly dressed whatever the occasion. One possibility is that the hospital staff dressed my brother as requested and someone with no morals or respect for the dead or their family, robbed the suit off my brother's back.

It is not yet fully clear what happened. We are still waiting to find out the whole truth.

This is a brand new hospital and I had hoped that the experience of visiting a deceased loved one, which was always going to be emotional, should not have been made more stressful than necessary. This image will stay with me forever.

My experience may have been a one-off and I do hope no other Maltese family is subjected to this type of ordeal.