We had a very interesting morning, one that will not be forgotten. Christine has another second cousin here in Malta, Mary Caruana. She is the daughter of Christine’s grandfather’s brother, so she would be a second cousin like Carol is to Christine. Carol’s grandmother was Christine’s great-aunt, her grandmother’s sister. Mary’s father was Christine’s great-uncle, her grandfather’s brother. Mary was close to Christine’s mother Rose. We also had learned from Christine’s cousin Louis in Australia some of Mary’s personal information. Louis was concerned about Mary because he always received a Christmas and birthday card, but he didn’t last year, so he was concerned. So, we wanted to find out more about this Mary Caruana.
We obtained Mary’s Sliema address from Louis so one day we walked over to the house. It looked pretty abandoned. In talking with Carol, we decided to try and contact her parish church to see if they had information. Christine emailed the priest, but never heard anything in reply. We talked with Carol and Joe a little more, and Joe volunteered to help. He contacted the parish, but didn’t learn anything. Joe then actually went to Mary’s address and knocked on some doors in the neighborhood. The lady across the street told him that Mary was living elsewhere, she thought in Mount Carmel Hospital. This neighbor pointed Joe down the street to a confectionary store and said the proprietor would know more information. Joe talked with that person and learned indeed Mary was now residing in the geriatric wing at Mount Carmel Hospital.
With this information in hand, Christine made a few calls to Mount Carmel Hospital, which originally was a psychiatric hospital, but due to Malta’s deinstitutionalize period leaving the facility with lots of empty beds, the hospital was repurposed for other health-related caregiving, like for youth group homes and elder care. Christine did a little detective work on Google and found the names of 3 geriatric wards at Mount Carmel. She called the first and was told there was no Mary Caruana there. She called a second unit and found that Mary Caruana was there in the San Georg Preca Unit. We knew Mary’s birthday was coming up on May 31, so that’s when we decided to go visit her.
This morning we took the #13 to Valletta, and then the #56 to Attard. There is a bus stop right at the entrance to the hospital grounds. Mount Carmel is a huge, aging facility composed of a main hospital building and lots and lots of buildings surrounding the compound. All the buildings are limestone and have wonderful balconies and decorative carvings all over. We walked down the road to the entrance that goes through a big limestone arched gateway. We had to check in at the entrance giving our IDs and getting visitor badges. Right inside the main gate is a lovely plaza with large fountain. The grounds are very well kept and have lots of trees and palms. At one point, looking out a window as we walked down a hallway, there was a very large citrus grove with trees full of tangerines or oranges.
We followed a sign to San Georg Preca, entered a large building with a beautiful rotunda, saw long corridors in both directions and asked someone for directions. A very nice man, who had only been on the job 5 weeks, said he would help us find the ward. We went to a ward, and he had to ask for directions. We then went up to the second floor and found the San Georg Preca ward. We asked for Mary Caruana and explained who we were and why we were looking for Mary. The staff was very nice and engaging and a young woman told us that Mary was very demented and did not speak. She took us to see this Mary and we spoke with her for a few minutes. The attendant said that Mary’s husband comes every day at 3:30 to visit. That was an alarm bell because we didn’t think Mary had ever married. We talked further with the attendant and it became a little clearer that this probably wasn’t the Mary Caruana we were looking for. Other staff got involved in the conversation and one volunteered to telephone this woman’s daughter. Christine spoke with the daughter on the phone and tried to piece together enough information to validate that this definitely wasn’t our Mary Caruana. It was very ironic, however, because the woman had a family member named Louis in Australia, but not our Louis. And, it was the woman’s (on the phone) birthday today. This Mary Caruana’s maiden name was Vella, and Aunt Bice (Louis’s mother) was a Vella. It all got very confusing, but for sure, that wasn’t our Mary Caruana. We thanked the staff for helping us and went on our way.
It was suggested that we might check with reception to see if there was another Mary Caruana in the facility. This is a very common name in Malta. We wandered around looking for reception, but we saw a door labeled Medical Records. We knew the fine folks in Medical Records would be helpful because they know everyone in the facility. There were 3 men in the department, which was a rather small room stuffed full of paper files with piles of record all over the room. There were a couple of computers in the room, though. We spoke with one man, telling him our story. A second man in the back of the room was making comments and asking questions. He was looking at a computer and finally said Mary Caruana, of the address we knew in Sliema, was on St. Jeanne Antide ward. He even volunteered to show us the way. Wow! After the whole thing with the other Mary Caruana, we were now going off to see another Mary Caruana.
We got to St. Jeanne Antide ward, which was simply through a door at the end of the hall of San Georg Preca ward, and asked for Mary Caruana, and explained our story to the staff. An attendant took us to a small woman sitting in a chair in the hall. We were advised by the nurse that Mary is very hard of hearing. The nurse yelled in Mary’s ear that Christine was family who had come to visit. Mary stood right up and began trying to understand who we were and how we were related. The nurse suggested we go into Mary’s room, which is a communal room having 8 or 10 beds. There is a large oval table in the middle of the room and we sat down with Mary. A nurse was hovering nearby helping us communicate with Mary and to help her understand how Christine is related to her. Mary kept asking who Christine was and I think she thought we were Australian Caruanas. The nurse helped Mary understand that Rosina was Christine’s grandmother. That helped a lot, and then eventually she was able to grasp that Rose was Christine’s mother. Mary is not at all demented or confused, but rather just couldn’t hear what we were saying. Her deafness was the problem in understanding. It took a bit of repetition, but Mary finally figured out the relationship and who Christine was. Once that happened, Mary was absolutely joyful to be meeting her second cousin, her dear friend Rose’s daughter. After that, she then was easily able to recount all the things she knew about Rose, and Rose’s siblings and children. She recalled that Joe and Bice had 10 children. She remembered Angela and how nice she and Lindsay were. She rattled off all the sibling names of Rose and how all but one went to America. Mary was just so excited that we had come to visit, and on her birthday. She said over and over again how happy she was.
The staff indicated that there was a birthday cake for Mary, which would have been presented at tea time, but they wheeled in Mary’s birthday cake while we were there. It was a surprise to Mary and she was so happy cutting the cake and sharing it with us. Mary is 94 today.
Mary wanted us to be sure and tell Louis hello and that she’s sorry she doesn’t write anymore. She said she finds it difficult to write when she is not alone, and she is never alone on the ward. She has been at Mount Carmel 15 months and she likes it very much. Christine and I were both very impressed by the facility. The residents looked like they received wonderful, loving care. The staff seemed very outgoing and interested in their work. And Mary said she was happy to be there. Mary seemed in very good shape, very spry and, except for her hearing problem, she was talkative and had good recall of information.
It was a very emotional visit for all of us. We’re really glad we went to visit Mary, and I know she was also glad we did. After we left, we wanted to go back to the other ward and let them know we found our Mary Caruana. We had given Louis the wrong ward and as we knew he was going to send Mary a card, we asked if they would be sure to send the card over to the correct unit, St. Jeanne Antide. They assured us they would.
We left with lots of questions unanswered. We would really like to know about Mary’s life. She describes herself as having the gift of gab and being very positive in her outlook, and she talked of being an animal lover, a piano player, interested in astrology, and a traveler. The hearing problem certainly limited our ability to ask her questions, and we didn’t want to interrupt her at all when she told us things of her life. She is a very lovely woman and we would like to know about her. Christine thinks she’ll contact someone on the unit, maybe a social worker, to find our more, like who is her contact in an emergency. We also want to ask about the possibility of getting her hearing aids because her life would be so much better if she could hear and converse more easily. I know how important my hearing aids are for my ability to be conversationally connected with people. But, Mary assured us she was happy there and she feels well taken care of.
So, what a memorable series of events culminating in a very happy family reunion.
Wow!
What a wonderful experience! Thank you for sharing this post, please send her my love if you speak to her again.