It’s been four days since Daphne Caruana Galizia’s last post and so many report going back to her website as an online memorial to her. The below is from one of her regular readers. It is a painful privilege for me that he choose this website to write to her from. But he writes on behalf of many of us who were her readers. If you have your own tribute to make, please do so in the comments section below.

Dear Daphne,

Now that your absence has started to sink in, and now that I realized that refreshing your Running Commentary website is pointless, I am starting to understand why your loss has taken such a toll on me, as a private individual, as well as your other readers. Although we have never met in person, you spoke to me as well as the rest of us, on a very regular basis for the past ten years or so. I started getting to know you when I used to read your Malta Independent pieces on Thursdays and Sundays. However, in 2008, I started following your Running Commentary.

From then onwards, through your written pieces, you never stopped communicating with me, as well as your other readers, on an almost daily basis, with the exception of a few voids every now and then. In such particular times, you just left us wondering about what year next post was going to be about.

Most of the time, admittedly, your words were music to my ears. On other times, once again, admittedly, you kind of surprised me, and yes, at times, you may have disappointed me. Nonetheless, when you spoke about our nation in general, about our traits as a country, about what was so particular about us as Maltese people, we were in perfect agreement. Your analysis, when it comes to such traits, was perfectly aligned with mine. I am sure, this analysis was also in line with the thoughts of most of your other readers.

There were many times when I just wanted to send you guest posts. On other times I wanted to comment on your comments board. However, I never had the courage to take such a step. What happened last Monday reaffirmed my concerns, and yes, let me be honest, the incident from last Monday reaffirmed my fear. In very simple terms, I never had the courage to confirm my agreement with your school of thought.

What about your educational posts? Even though we never met, you did teach me quite a lot. Your command of the English language, your eye for detail for appropriate attire, for etiquette and your way of building up written arguments have served me as well as your other readers, as an ongoing learning platform. This is perhaps a side of you that is rarely discussed. Although you are mostly known for your critical stand, I believe that you should be given credit for your educational posts.

Something that I never understood was the utmost hatred towards you. In your case, you simply used your Running Commentary and your Malta Independent opinion slots to put forward your arguments. You never bothered sending us leaflets in our homes. You never carried out door to door sessions sharing your views. You never bombarded us with mailshots and SMSs. Your written work was only accessible and read by those who chose to do so. If people were not interested in what you wrote, they could have easily chosen to avoid reading it. For this reason, I never understood the hate in your regard. To me it was very simple. I only read your work because I enjoyed it. Those who never liked your work should have just avoided it and that should have been that. However, this was not the case.

And I cannot help but blame the haters for this. All they could do was just refuse to read your work in the same way that I refuse to read quite a lot of written work by several other peers of yours.

As a final remark, I would like to turn to your sons, who are of more or less my age, and to your husband. I would like to express my sorrow as well as my sympathy for what they are enduring, and for what they are yet to endure. I hope, that your death will serve as an eye opener, and also, as a trigger for positive change. Only time will tell if this will be the case. Until then, we can only hope….

Rest in peace dear Daphne

One of your many readers….