Author Mikiel Spiteri, known as Kilin, passed away eight years ago. Lorella Fava meets his youngest daughter, Rosalie Caruana, to remember an author, an artist, and a father

Kilin’s daughter, Rosalie Caruana, the youngest of seven children, reads from her father’s poem Qalb Żgħażugħa focusing on the same lines she read at her father’s funeral.

“It describes him perfectly”, she says as she proceeds to paint a mental picture for me of the man he used to be. A family man, a man full of life, caring and beyond everything a man possessing great love for his country.

Kilin being awarded Ġieħ ir-Repubblika.

“I’m very proud of him.”

His best known work is Fuq l-Għajn ta’ San Bastjan, a collection of childhood memories. He is also well-known for the book Wayside Chapels Of Malta And Gozo, which includes his own sketches.

In December 2000, he was awarded the Midalja għall-Qadi tar-Repubblika and in 2002 received the Premio Vicente Azzopardi, given to Maltese people who distinguish themselves in promoting Maltese-Spanish culture. His book Kif Għedtlek Wenż won the literary award for non-fiction prose in 2002 and in 2007 was awarded the National Book Prize as the personality that contributed in an indispensible way to the world of books.

“He started writing at a relatively old age, around the age of 50, after a career disappointment,” says Rosalie.

Although the public knows Kilin, a nickname he retained from his mother, as the artist who enriched Maltese literature, Rosalie depicts a very different picture of the artist:

“The public sees Kilin, but I see my father.”

“He was a strict person when we were kids. His father was a police officer and so he was raised with a certain discipline that he later passed on to us.”

I want my father to be remembered

She also describes him as a very religious person, one who loved nature, and one who “dedicated his life to his family”.

Rosalie recollects one of her favorite memories with her father which involved gathering pillows and blankets and taking his kids up to the roof to look at the sky.

Kilin painting

“‘The stars are your grandmother looking down at you from heaven’s windows,’ he used to tell us. These are some of the happiest times I’ve ever spent with him,” she narrates.

“However, you can’t mention my father without mentioning my mother,” Rosalie adds. “He loved our mother deeply. When she passed away he locked himself in his room for days. He was devastated.” Rosalie says her mother had of a completely different nature –she was quieter whereas he was always full of energy.

In fact, Rosalie smilingly talks about how even when he was at the home for the elderly he insisted on writing, going on walks and even attempted to read to other patients.

His love for his family did not, however, falter or overshadow his love for this country, and more specifically his language.

Catching herself speaking in English momentarily, Rosalie laughs as she remembers her father’s insistence that she should never switch from one language to the other. She recalls one particular episode when they went swimming in Sliema. She had simply asked her father to hand her the comb, which he refused to do until she asked him in proper Maltese: “He was deeply passionate about his language.”

Kilin and his wife celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.

A bust to the great writer, something Rosalie has been working on for months, will be unveiled tomorrow Thursday, in College Street, Rabat at 7 pm.

Kilin’s last book, which is a translation of his previous novel Tinsiex, Publius Tinsiex!, a semi-historical novel which narrates the story of St Paul in Malta, will also be launched during the unveiling. The translation, The Island was called Melite, was translated by Kilin himself but was finished by his daughter when his health started to deteriorate. The forward is written by Kilin’s close friend, Trevor Zahra.

To Rosalie, this day is a very important one.

“I want my father to be remembered. I am the person I am today because of him and only now that I have fulfilled my duty of honoring the great man I know he was do I feel like I can truly rest.”

And so, Kilin will evermore live on in his hometown of Rabat, as he surely looks down from heaven’s windows onto his beloved country.