Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1545479
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 JUNE 2026 TRIBUTE Short story: The sitting-room By Emidio Saliba WERE you to call at the house of Mrs Cachia, up to two months ago, she would have re- ceived you in the sitting-room, where she was accustomed to receive all her friends and rel- atives. There, whilst welcom- ing you, she would have en- tertained you with a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits, as the time passed away in idle con- versation. You would have enjoyed yourself talking in that fairly large room, and if that were your first visit to Mrs Cachia's house, your eyes would have certainly travelled around the sitting-room. The showcase with its collection of tumblers and glass vases would have probably stopped your wan- dering eyes for a second, after which they would have proba- bly stopped on a shelf bedecked with tiny china dolls. But what would have certainly most im- pressed you was a number of pictures hanging on the walls, all of them being family photos. Hanging in the middle of the wall over the sofa there was the picture commemorating the wedding day of Mr and Mrs Cachia. This picture had been hanging there for no less than thirty years because Toni- na and Gużeppi never moved from the house in which they had established themselves af- ter the wedding reception. For thirty whole years that picture had been commemorating the day in the history of the world when Gużeppi and Tonina be- came husband and wife and af- terwards posed for the village photographer. That picture had been doing its duty for such a long time and except for the rare occasions when Mrs Cachia decided to decorate the sitting-room, it was never re- moved from its place. Hanging as it was about sev- en feet above the sofa, this picture could not attract one's attention very much. Tonina and Gużeppi were just a smear of white and black on a pale green background. The brown- ish red frame did not help to make the picture stand out. In short, Tonina and Gużeppi were just like any other couple. But were you to have a close look at the picture, you would have noticed that you could see more than meets the eye from afar. The smiling faces of Toni- na and Ġużep¬pi would then have appeared like two sum- mer peaches. The small attrac- tive face of Tonina, covered by long, black, curly hair, was of a young reddish colour. Her tiny eyes, nose and lips made Toni- na look very charming. She was wearing a long, white, plain but elegant dress, and the veil which covered her head flowed down trailing on the ground. In her hands she was holding a large bouquet of white ros- es and jessamines entwined in green leaves hanging down on her white dress. Ġużep¬pi, with the gloves in his left hand and holding Tonina arm in arm, had a manly look, though he was short and slim. His white shirt under the black jacket, the rose in the buttonhole, and his creamy white smiling teeth gave the picture an air of har- mony, serenity and simplicity. It was hard to believe that that picture was 30 years old and during this time, Tonina and Ġużep¬pi had brought up six children and had lived peace- fully together in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health! And in this way, one moment of their life had been printed on paper by means of a simple flash of light and had remained an eternal moment of happiness and blessing. Around this picture, six oth- er photos were hanging on the four walls of the sitting-room. They were not the pictures of the grandparents or other rel- atives of the Cachia family; neither did they depict varied episodes from the life of the Cachia family. Nothing of the sort. All the six pictures com- memorated one same event, the first holy communion of each and every child of Tonina and Ġużep¬pi, and surrounded the wedding photo of Mr and Mrs Cachia as if they were six lambs gathered round the ram Emidio Saliba Something quite striking was the variety of frames which bordered these pictures. The frames of the pictures of the two elder daughters in the family were really old and in bad taste A brotherly tribute PAUL Saliba recalls his brother Emidio in this tribute marking 50 years since he passed away at the young age of 24. Emidio obtained a Bachelors Honours degree in Maltese Lan- guage from the Royal University of Malta and taught Maltese grammar and literature in secondary school. In the 1975-76 national competition for the Short Story of the Year promot- ed by the British Residents' Association, Emidio won second award. His brother Paul is reproducing the short story as he pays homage, 50 years later.