Rachel Fabri Camilleri writes:

From her grandchildren’s perspectives (I am one of them), she was a strong woman, a woman that had to endure far more than she should have had to on this earth, a teacher, a mother, a wife, a grandmother, a friend.

Unfortunately, our teenage years already saw her at the beginning of her struggle with illness but the stories that the older generation in our family would relate to us allowed us to see her in a totally different light.

When my father would recollect her love of music, her teaching, playing the piano, her love for big earrings, her big brown eyes and curly hair, her love for cats... I would feel tears fill my eyes as I realised what a lot she and I actually had in common.

I teach singing and play the piano every day. I share her passion for teaching and music is my life.

Her three granddaughters all have big brown eyes and all four of her grandchildren adore animals and enjoy music.

I am so grateful that she was present at my wedding two years ago. I got married at 28 years old... When she was my age she had just lost her husband, Nannu Neni.

She had a three-year-old daughter and was pregnant with my father. I cannot even begin to imagine how she must have felt and how strong she had to be.

Friends and family always tell us about her passion for swimming, how she enjoyed socialising, about her zest for life and about her joking character and great sense of humour. I can see that sense of humour shine through her children, my father and aunt, as well as in her four grandchildren.

We will miss her but, at least, we know she is no longer suffering and that she is at rest with God and alongside her parents and her true love, Neni.

May God grant her eternal peace.