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Karl Schembri
First lady Mary Fenech Adami admitted yesterday she was too tied to her Birkirkara home to move to San Anton Palace as yet.
The grandmother and mother of five children has been in the limelight during the last weeks as she repeatedly urged her husband to turn down the offer to become President, imposing, in her husband’s own words, what is “almost a condition” that they do not move into the presidential palace.
“It’s difficult to settle there but, God willing, we have five years to do it,” she said yesterday, almost apologetically, when asked by MaltaToday during her first official event since last Sunday’s swearing-in ceremony. “I want to remain at home in Birkirkara to be able to meet my children and grandchildren, to remain close to my family. That’s the reason why (we haven’t moved). There’s someone at home all the time, they (children) keep turning up. It’s hard to get used to living away from them. So they either stop visiting us and I try to forget them or else I don’t know. But there’s no other reason why we haven’t moved yet.”
Married to the former prime minister since 1965, Ms Fenech Adami always kept out of the limelight and is known for her unassuming lifestyle in Birkirkara, where she mingles with other housewives at the market. Now, even though against her wishes, her new role will require her to adapt somewhat to all the officialdom that comes with the presidency.
Ms Fenech Adami’s insistence on remaining at Birkirkara puts her husband in an awkward position as he had repeatedly told various presidents that it was their duty to reside at the palace.
“Treat her gently, she still has to get used to it,” Parliamentary Secretary Helen D’Amato told journalists as they asked Ms Fenech Adami for a comment yesterday. They were handing Easter gifts to the elderly at St Vincent de Paule, together with Health Minister Louis Deguara.
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