Last Sunday, August 30, Ariadne Massa gave the readers of The Sunday Times a gem of an interview with Amy Zahra who at the age of 21 was struck by the deadly meningococcal septicaemia. The condition robbed her of her legs and fingers but not of her dignity, courage and fighting spirit. Ariadne gave us Amy’s story without frills or even a hint of sensationalism. It was a good and warm human-interest story.

As if this terrible condition was not enough, Amy recently suffered from renal failure. It seems that lightning does strike the same place twice! Ariadne spoke to her before and after the renal transplant. Lino Spiteri followed the story with an opinion piece in The Times of August 31. The word “indomitable” in the title of this blog is taken from the title of Lino’s piece.

Amy really is indomitable. Please read the story which is still available on http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090830/interview/on-a-limb-and-a-prayer. It will lift your spirit as it did mine. It is a story of human courage. Thank you Amy for, once more, sharing with us your experience. May your stamina, determination and courage be contagious. It is true that the story of Amy has been in the news from time to time but it is always fresh as it refreshes the spirit.

Our unsung heroes and heroines

I would like to move beyond Amy and consider those men, women, youths and children who, like Amy, struggle through incredible tribulations and suffering. Their silence lets their struggle go unnoticed; but heroic it is just the same.

I know of a:

• woman whose husband and son passed away, both victims of cancer. She is now suffering from the disease but is a spring of hope to all around her.
• Of a man whose wife fell ill during their honeymoon. She has been bed-ridden ever since. Her husband is always at her side caring and loving.
• Young man who a couple of years before marriage discovered that his fiancé had a condition which would permanently disable her. Their now-married love for each other is stronger than the disadvantages of her disability.
• Woman who battled to save her son from that terrible scourge called drugs. She suffered a lot, but now hers is the happy victory.

These and many others are the unsung heroes and heroines who strengthen the moral fibre to our society.

Caring is a need

I would like to remember all those who do not have the strength that Amy has. They have not moved on in life after being struck by some disability or some human tragedy. They suffer in silence. Their life is a wreck. They have no one to dry their tears. Every day is spent on the Calvary while they find no solace in an eventual Resurrection.

What are we doing to address and alleviate the pain of these sisters and brothers of ours?

Our culture has changed hospitality into a business and care into a profession. Please do not misunderstand what I am writing. I have nothing but gratitude and praise for all those working in the caring professions. However there is a tendency that people abrogate their duty of caring for others to the professionals whom they pay to care for others. They are too busy to care. This is a dehumanising trend. Caring for and loving others is a need we all have. We cannot satisfy this basic human need simply by paying others to do it for us. The welfare state is great. However, we need a caring society or caring individuals and not just caring bureaucrats or professionals. We have to care for, love and invest our time in the interest of those in pain, who feel lonely, who have no one to love them.

I would like to comment about two particular aspects of the interview with Amy.

Limbs that made a difference

She uses state of the art artificial silicone limbs, which were produced two years ago in the UK. “They’ve change my life”, Amy says. The journalist tells us that these artificial limbs look so real “complete with painted toenails and veins in the right places - that she could fool anyone they were her own.” Not everyone can afford such advanced prosthetic limbs as government does not provide this service. Amy says that she understands that the government cannot provide them. I get Amy’s point but I have a number of questions to posit.

Isn’t it time that the government radically reforms the present regime of providing medicines, facilities and services totally free of charge? Aren’t there many people who get free medicines which they can easily and effortlessly afford to buy? If government stops giving relatively, cheaply priced medicines to those who can buy them, it will have more money to provide freely more costly medicines to those who cannot afford them. To-day Government gives to the undeserving several medicines that are relatively inexpensive and it then have budgetary problems providing costly medicines to those who cannot pay for them. Let’s economise on the services of those who can afford paying so that we provide more to those who cannot afford to pay.

Once more the blue parking bay

Amy, in her interview, refers to a subject I had written about recently: parking for the disabled.

"People's mentality towards disabled parking places can be so aggravating. Their excuse is that they only parked there for two minutes, but their two minutes is my hour...” The interviewer told us that Amy gets angry when she says this. Like her, I get very angry at such behaviour. Let me just broach a horror story. I know of someone who purposely parked an old car in a lot that was assigned to be used as a blue parking bay. He wanted to prevent the authorities reserving it for a disable person. How cruel can some people get?