Simshar widows still feeling their husbands' presence

Whenever the sea gets rough, the widow of one of the Simshar victims still feels the urge to tell her late husband to be careful when he sets off on his fishing trip.

"It's been six months since the tragedy but whenever it's inclement weather I find myself mouthing the words: It's bad weather, Karm," said Carmen Bugeja, who lost her husband Carmelo, 61, when the Simshar fishing boat exploded and sank last summer.

Standing next to her, Stephania Carabott, the widow of 33-year-old Noel, another of the four victims, looked into the distance and said she too spoke to her husband at times.

"I can't come to terms with the way things happened. The fact that I was not present when he died makes it hard to move on," Mrs Carabott said.

Mrs Bugeja nodded in approval. A few weeks ago, she broke down because her water heater had to be repaired and she did not know what to do because her husband usually fixed it.

"Now I'm really careful with things around the house to make sure they don't break down because he's not here to fix them," she said.

Dressed in black and bound by grief, the two women stood on the Marsaxlokk promenade looking out to sea and spoke about how the death of their beloved husbands has left a gaping wound in their lives.

They had gathered there, together with other relatives of the tragedy's victims, to receive a total of €37,000 in donations handed to them by Resources and Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino who termed the incident "the worst tragedy in the fishing sector Malta has ever seen".

The Simshar had set out on a fishing trip on July 7 and had been expected back by July 11. Aboard the vessel were the boat's owner, Simon Bugeja, his 11-year-old son Theo and his father Carmelo Bugeja, Mr Carabott and 21-year-old Somali Abdulrahman Abdalla Gedi.

Searches started after concerned relatives reported the vessel overdue. The following week the corpses of Mr Carabott, Mr Bugeja and Mr Gedi were found and Simon Bugeja was rescued by a fishing boat after eight days at sea.

He told rescuers that the Simshar had sunk following an explosion on July 11 and that his son had died in his arms but eventually he had lost his grip and the boy had drifted away.

"This donation does not heal the pain but it may provide a small helping hand," Mr Pullicino said as he handed out the cheques to Mr Bugeja, his wife Sharon (who was not present), his mother Carmela and Mrs Carabott. Emigrants' Commission director Mgr Philip Calleja collected the cheque on behalf of Mr Gedi and will now pass it on to his wife in Somalia.

The funds included money deposited by the public into two bank accounts opened for the victims, a €1,000 government contribution, money raised by the Għaqda Koperattiva tas-Sajd and the Fisheries Cooperative and funds raised during a marathon aired on Family TV. A pending sum of €10,000, also collected during the marathon, will be divided among the victims' relatives.

Mr Pullicino said the government, together with the Armed Forces of Malta and the two cooperatives, was working to improve health and safety at sea. He announced that planned embellishment works of the Marsaxlokk promenade will include a monument to commemorate all fishermen who died at sea.