Two very moving stories of two Maltese mothers are in the news. Both are named as ‘angel’ and both their stories are bitter/sweet.

Times of Malta  has reported that Angie Bajada,a 25 year old young mother has passed away. She was left in a vegetative state after a motorcycle accident five years ago.

The newspaper also reported about Angela Catania who last Saturday featured in a recorded Canale 5 television progamme although she had died on Boxing Day. During the programme Catania had met her son after forty years.

I do not personally know any one of them. But in today’s world, much more than in any other age, relationships are built through media generated experiences and not just through relationships based on contact in the physical world. Both are stories of suffering and love intractably enmeshed together. Both touch our hearts and bring a tear to our eyes.

Angie Bajada was just 20 years old. She had a full life in front of her, but it was not to be. On that fateful day five years ago Angie went out with a friend to Birkirkara where she met a young man who invited her for a ride round the block on his motorcycle. It was to be her last ride; her last conscious contact with others. A tragic accident left her with serious brain damage. Angie could breathe alone, hear and feel pain but she could not see, talk or move alone except for small movements and sounds.

Her family loved her and cared for her. Her very little baby grew up knowing mummy only in her hospital bed. Today she went to meet her creator.

The story of Angela Catania is also bitter/sweet. She had a baby when she was still a minor. Her mother sent the baby to an orphanage and the baby was later on adopted by an Italian couple.

There was never any contact between the natural mother and her son. C’e Posta per te managed to put them in contact during the programme broadcast last Saturday but recorded weeks ago. It must have been such a beautifully intense moment for both mother and son. Unfortunately it was not to last for a long time. Forty years of separation, a short period of possible encounter and then the unexpected death at the relatively young age of 58.

I believe it was very wrong for the producers to broadcast the programme without telling their audiences of the sad end of the story.

Life can be so strange. So many things happen that we cannot understand. So much suffering surrounds us that cannot be explained. There are so many twists and turns that make us query the scope of our existence.

But there is something which should give us hope. This is love. In our case the love of Angela Catania for the son she hardly ever saw. That love accompanied her all through her life. The maternal bond was not broken by the long separation.

In the case of Angie Bajada it was the love of her parents and relatives that accompanied her closely during the years of darkness. Love was there unabated throughout those long five years.

I give my condolences to all the relatives of both Angela and Angie, two women named for angels.