"Truly, the good die young," Nicky`s mother Mariella Buttigieg said, wiping away tears as she recalled the tragic accident last February 19 which took away her son`s life three weeks before his 15th birthday.
Nearly a year later, his family have shakily regained control of their lives, which they all agree," can never be the same again ".
The family were interviewed at their home in Attard where Nicky`s presence seems to be everywhere, with his photographs and sunflowers, his favourite flowers, all over the place. His room, complete with his model cars collectiion, has not been touched since his death. His bed is still made up with the sheets he had slept in on the night before the fatal day.
Since he was five, Nicky always wanted to became a pilot. His dream started to became reality when he began attending the Euopean Flight Acadamey in September 1999.On the day of the accident, he was with his teacher. 19 - year old pilot Stephan Ferriggi, who was driving a Rover Cabriolet. As fate would have it, however, the car crashed into the centre strip in Garibaldi Street, Luqa, wrapping itself around a tree.
Nicholas`s father Martin saw the accident on his way to the airport to pick up a company director who was arriving from abroad. He recognised the car and his son`s foot but did not want to believe that one of those two bodies was his son`s.
To put his mind at rest, he went to the academy, where he knew his son had gone, and asked for him, but the receptionist said Nicky had left early. Martin went to the airport for the director, who was also his friend. On seeing him he said , something happened. Together they went back to the site of the accident,  but parked the car far away - Martin could not get himself to park nearby - and his friend went on his own to see the bodies. He identified Nicky, and got back to Martin to give him the bad news, telling him, "I`m sorry". Martin immediately felt a double burden as he also had to start thinking how he was to pass on the news. He knew his wife was out with his daughter and called the family doctor to call at home and be there by the time she got there.
Mariella said that on the day of the accident, she felt unwell from the beginning."I was with Rhiana (Nicky`s sister) who was shopping in Hamrun and I was feeling really cold although it was a very sunny day. I could sense something was wrong. "While driving , Rhiana got a call on her cell phone, which I answered. It was Martin`s sister. She asked us where we where going and told us to go home. "I immediatly asked where Martin was as I believed Nicky was still at the academy. "She told me Martin was there and I asked to speak to him."At first she said I couldn`t but then Martin came to the phone  and told me to come home because Nicky was slightly injured. "I gave the telephone to Rhiana and told her that our Nicky had died."I don`t know what happened next but people told me that I was shouting and screaming". The family recalls that life was a blur for the next three days. Mariella says that her unfulfilled wish was that she did not go to Nicky before he was buried. The family`s sole consolation is that part of Nicky, his cornea, lives on in an 80year old Gozitan women. When the family were asked to donate it, they recalled discussing the subject; Nicky had said he would not have a problem donating his body parts after he died.The family also realised later that on the day of the accident, Nicky had been studing eyesight at the academy and he had drawn the cross-section of an eye, showing a cornea............
Only six months after the ordeal, the family celebrated the wedding of their daughter Rhiana to Etienne. The couple had considered postponing the wedding but the final decision was to keep it as planned. The couple are now awaiting their first child. As expected, if the baby is a girl she will be named Nicole, if a boy, Nicholas."When Etienne came over one day and addressed us as grandparents, I was thrilled to bits but my first thought was if Nicky were still here....." Mariella said. 
The family believes  that Nicky still sends them signals occasionally to show them he is still with them.  "We found all his belongings, except for his sapectacles, after his death."On his birthday, March 10, we went to the site of the accident to pray and put sunflowers. We arrived early, and looked for his spectacles, but it was all in vain," Martin said. He said he secretly prayed to Nicholas to give his mother his spectacles. The family placed the flowers and prayed. Then, when the finished praying, they spotted Nicky`s spectacles next to Mariella. Martin said that it was probable that the time of the accident, the spectacles had flown out of the car and stuck to the tree and they fell next to Mariella just as they were praying.

Mariella said of Nicky: "He was in love with life and appreciated every minute of it." Apart from a son, we have slso lost our best friend,"Martin concluded.


(The Buttigieg family shall be recounting their experience on tonight`s episode in the TVM (television Malta) series of Nies ta` Veru, (Real People), being screaned after the 8 p.m. news.

THE SUNDAY TIMES OF MALTA, JANUARY 14, 2001 

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YOUNG LIFE TRAGICALLY CUT SHORT


FROM MS. HELEN BORG



NICKY BUTTIGIEG (WHO DIED TRAGICALLY IN A CAR ACCIDENT ON FEBRUARY 19) WAS ALWAYS WITH A SMILE ON HIS FACE AND ALWAYS READY FOR A LAUGH. ON THE THRESHOLD OF BECOMING A YOUNG MAN HE WAS TAKEN FROM US SUDDENLY AND SO HORRIBLY. HIS HOME ENVIROMENT AND UPBRINGING WAS PREPARING HIM FOR A FULL AND SATISFYING LIFE. SO MANY PLANS AND ASPIRATION S BY A FATHER WHO CARED AND A MOTHER WHO DOTED ON HIM.HE TOO HAD HIS PLANS AND LATELY STARTED TO WORK HARD TOWARDS ACHIEVING HIS AIMS.

AFTER BEING A STUDENT AT ST MICHEAL`S FOUNDATION HE WAS NOW ATTENDING SALVATORE DIMECH SCHOOL IN TARGA GAP WHERE HE WAS EXTREMELY HAPPY. HE HAD ALSO DONE EXTREMELY WELL IN HIS HALF-YEARLY EXAMS WHICH HE HAD JUST FINISHED DOING I WONDER WHETHER HE HAD SOME PREMONITION ABOUT HIS SHORT LIFE. NICKY SEEMS TO HAVE FITTED IN MORE ACTIVITIES IN HIS DAYS THAN MAYBE THREE YOUNG MEN PUT TOGETHER. BESIDES HIS STUDIES AT SCHOOL, HE USED TO ATTTEND THE GYM AT TA` QALI, PLAYED WITH THE ATTARD FOOTBALL CLUB, TRAINED WITH A BASKETBALL TEAM AND WAS A MEMBER OF TWO YOUTH CENTRES---ATTARD AND ST JULIAN`S.

JUDGING BY WHAT WAS WRITTEN IN A LETTER LEFT ON HIS GRAVE BY A FRIEND, NICKY SEEMS TO HAVE PLAYES AS IMPORTANT PART IN CONCOLIDATING AND UNITING THE YOUNG PEOPLE AT THE CENTRE. AND HIS FRIENDS APPRECIATED HIM . THAT EVERYONE COULD SEE. 

NICKY LOVED CARS AND WAS ALSO A MEMBER OF THE ISLAND RADIO MODEL CAR CLUB AT ST ANDREWS. HIS LATEST ACTIVITY - AND IT WAS TO BE HIS LAST - WAS ATTENDING A COURSE AT THE EUROPEAN FLIGHT ACADEMY CO. LTD. HE WAS SO LOOKING FOWARD TO HIS FIRST 30 -MINUTE FLIGHT WITH THE PILOT THAT WAS SOON TO TAKE PLACE. HE NEVER MADE IT . INSTEAD HE TOOK A LONGER FLIGHT -- A NEVERLASTING ONE TO HEAVEN. BUT AS HIS COUSIN WROTE IN A POEM DEDICATED TO HIM HIS DEATH COULD NOT HAVE BEEN INVAIN. HIS FAMILY IS UNITED AND CLOSER THAN EVER BEFORE. NICKY WOULD HAVE LOVED TO SEE THAT. 

NICKY, FROM WHEREVER YOU ARE, KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR MUM AND DAD AND YOUR BEAUTIFUL SISTER RHIANA. THEY MISS YOU TERRIBLY AND WILL GO ON MISSING YOU AND LOVING YOU FOREVER. AS WILL THE REST OF THE FAMILY AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO NEW YOU  ---- MY GODSON. AND DEEP DOWN , WE ALL FEEL SO PROUD TO HAVE KNOWN YOU ---- EVEN IF FOR A SHORT TIME. GOD BLESS YOU. 


YOUR AUNTY 

HELEN BORG

FLEUR DE LYS (MALTA) 



THIS WAS PUBLISHED ON THE SUNDAY TIMES OF MALTA, MARCH 5, 2000. 


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  The Youth group of St Julian`s were shocked to here about the tragic loss of Nicholas Buttigieg aged 14 years on the 19th of February 2000. Nicky was a member of the group. He used to attend all the meetings and the activities that used to be held.

I met Nicky for the first time at the meeting place where the group used to meet.The fact that Nicky was a new member, for him this was not a problem. He integrated with the group of youths and succeeded to make alot of friends.
He was a type of person that people used to love to be with him, infact being friends with Nicky made everyone unite and make more new friends.

He was always ready for a joke and used to put a smile on everyones face. Even when I needed a favour Nicky was always there, ready to help in the best he could.

Nicky was very active and used to practise many sports. He used to attend the gym, played football with his town team and he even played basketball with his school team. I`m also sure of, he was a great fan of Formula One car racing. 
He also loved swimming, we all used to meet every Sunday to go for a swim in summer.

But most of all Nicky had an ambition......He wanted  to became a piolt. So he used to attend flight courses at The Flight Academy Co. Ltd. 

Latley, Nicky had stopped coming to the youth club at St Julian`s because he started attending the Attard youth club where he lived. From what I have heard he continued doing what he left at our club........uniting everyone together and making more friends and putting a smile to all.

I met Nicky few days before he passed away and we talked for a while, telling me how happy he was at his new school and how hard he is studying to obtain good results.

His death made us all and mostly me to realise how precious and what a great gift life is. Nobody knows when our turn is to come infront of the Lord. That is why we should all be prepared, so when we come face to face with the Lord we will not have anything to hide.

Our deepest sympathy goes to his father , mother and his dearest and only sister.  And we promise that we will remember them in our prayers and that we will never forget their  SON  and  a  GREAT  FRIEND  to us all............................................NICHOLAS

A41
ALL FOR ONE YOUTH COMMUNITY
WRITTEN BY AINSLEY CASSAR

 
(This was published on the magazine  "IL- MIXJA" ("THE WALK")  number 281)

I see the countless Christmas trees
around the world below.

The sight is so spectacular,
please wipe away the tear
For I am spending Christmas with
Jesus Christ this year again.

I hear the many Christmas songs
that people hold so dear
But the sounds of music can`t compare
with the Christmas choir up here.

I have no words to tell you,
the joy their voices bring,
For it is beyond description,
to hear the angels sing.

I know how much you miss me,
I see the pain inside your heart.
But I am not so far away,
We really aren`t apart.

So be happy for me, dear ones,
You know I hold you dear.
And be glad I`m spending Christmas
with Jesus Christ this year.

I sent you each a special gift,
from my heavenly home above.
I sent you each a memory
of my undying love.

After all, love is a gift most precious
than pure gold.
It was always most important
in the stories Jesus told.

Please love and keep each other,
as my father said to do.
For I cant`t count the blessing or love
he has for each of you.

So have a Merry Christmas and
wipe away the tear.
Remember, I am spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.  

WITH LOVE FROM
NICHOLAS XXXXX