Stacey Smith spent over 25 years searching in vain for her father’s grave until a letter to the Times of Malta finally provided the closure she had been searching for.

Ms Smith was only 13 when her father, Peter James Smith, succumbed to injuries from a gas explosion at his home in Paceville. The cause of the incident is still not determined.

Peter James Smith died from injuries after a gas explosion in September 1993.

“It is my understanding that he had been asleep and then woke up and had switched on a light, or perhaps lit a cigarette, which caused the gas blast,” she said, adding that the family never received an explanation from the authorities. 

The man suffered 90 per cent burns to his body and succumbed to his injuries nine weeks later, she said.

At the time, the teenager was living in Scotland with her mother, who was unable to pay for her to come to Malta.

“The government would not repatriate him as he had died without a will and had lived in Malta for more than 10 years,” she said.

Ms Smith’s family moved to Malta from Dundee, Scotland, when she was two years old. Together with her sister, she returned to the Scottish city with their mother after her parents separated. 

Ms Smith was only five years old at the time. Speaking to the Times of Malta, the woman recalled fond memories of the country.

“My love of being in and on the water was born in Malta,” she said. 

“My most vivid memories revolve around that, heading out to the Blue Lagoon, which is, in my mind, still the most stunningly beautiful place on the planet.”

“I remember we would visit Valletta, all awestruck at how old and beautiful it seemed,” Ms Smith, 38, said.

Along the years she tried to locate her father’s final resting place but to no avail.

“It was an agonising loss, particularly knowing it was not a pain-free and peaceful passing,” she wrote in her letter. 

“I never had the chance to say goodbye or pay my respects.”

After reaching out to the British High Commission and Maltese officials, who informed her they were unable to track down her father’s grave, Ms Smith started to lose hope she would ever ‘meet’ her father again. In a last-ditch attempt, she wrote a letter to the Times of Malta making an impassioned plea for information.

Her call for help did not fall on deaf ears for, having read her letter on this newspaper, the Santa Maria Addolorata cemetery archivist promptly informed her that her father had been buried in grave 91 in the West Division. Ms Smith now plans to travel to Malta towards the end of the year, when she has some time off her nursing classes.

“I cannot express how amazing it would be to show my partner and my son the country where I grew up and the place that makes my heart swell just by thinking about it,” she said.