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When I was eleven years old I won a painting competition in Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories magazine. In those days they printed the name and address of the winners and I received about six letters from around the world. I chose a pen friend from Malta, Alfreda, who was my age and we wrote to each other for about six years until boyfriends and homework took over and we lost touch. Forty-four years later we booked a holiday in Malta at Bugibba, I found her address in an old address book and an old photo of Alfreda but when we were there I thought this is hopeless. However, on the last but one day we took a bus to Marsaxlokk, a pretty fishing village the far side of the island, walked around the headland to Birzebuga and the first street we saw was Alfreda's. We asked in a shop and a customer overheard and knew where her sister Mary lived opposite the church, so we raced up there and just caught her coming out of her house. We showed her the old photo (Mary remembered me) and gave us Alfreda's new address about 100 yards away, but they were out. Alfreda had married Mario, a Pharmacist, and had three children, like me, two boys and a girl and the children now work and live in England, as an Oncologist, Consultant Psychiatrist and a Cambridge Research Scientist in molecular biology. Alfreda phoned us at the hotel later that evening but we were unable to meet as she was working as a Tour Guide the next day. A year later, 2001, Mario and Alfreda visited us in Waterlooville and we met for the first time. In September this year they invited us to a wedding party of her son, (he had recently married in Sweden, as the bride is Swedish) and to stay in one of their apartments for a week. The party was for the 70 Maltese relations to meet the new bride for the evening at The Radisson Hotel overlooking the sea. They all made us feel very welcome. It was great staying in a Maltese town seeing how the people work and play. It was extremely hot - the families all come out in the evening to meet and the young children play out until quite late, as it is cooler. The capital, Valletta, is rich in architecture, history, beautiful churches and an amazing cathedral called John's Co-Cathedral with the Caravaggio painting of The Beheading of St John. This huge, vigorous work of art dominates the oratory. The churches are so ornate and impressive, and Valletta has a great natural harbour with sheltered anchorages and creeks that have been coveted by many a foreign fleet. Also worth seeing is Mdina, Rabat, Mosta Dome, Gozo Island, the Blue Grotto, and the President's Palace Gardens. I can recommend Malta, preferably in April, May or October. It was very hot in September, so we "cooled off" in the sea, and the sea temperature was 28 degrees! (Hayling Island sea temperature at its warmest is usually 18 degrees). Isn't that an unusual story! I hope we shall continue to write to each other... Adina Burton |
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