Extraordinary LIVES
MY DAUGHTER MARIA-THERESA
MY DARLING only child was a loving, caring person. Always happy and wanting to help people, it was so typical of her that she was an organ donor. It helps me to know that the lives of others have been saved and enriched because of her last act of kindness. Growing up, she went through Brownies, Girl Guides and Venture Scouts. She loved the outdoors and on her horse, Calypso, competed in show jumping, dressage and cross-country. After school, she gained a place at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School to study sound and lighting. But shortly before she was due to start the course, she suffered a brain haemorrhage and was in a coma for a month. Throughout this time, her school chaplain, Father Mike, sat beside her hospital bed. When she came out of the coma, she was paralysed down one side. An aneurysm, a weakened blood vessel, had been detected at the centre of her brain, so a platinum coil had to be inserted to strengthen it. Determined to overcome the paralysis, she took up judo. A year later, having
recovered, she took up her place at Bristol, which had kept it open for her. After two happy years, she got her first professional job at Birmingham Rep, working on the pantomime and the play Heartlanders. She moved to the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, where she met her first husband, Renny Robertson, the technical manager. When their careers pulled them apart, they decided to stay friends. Working as a freelance, MariaTheresa worked on the Edinburgh Fringe production Black Watch and travelled the world when it went on tour. She took up rock-climbing and met a wonderful circle of friends, including her second husband, Robin Morton, a chef, with whom she was extremely happy. I had booked my flights to spend Christmas with them in Edinburgh, but just a few days before I was due to travel, Maria-Theresa was rushed to hospital with another brain haemorrhage. She was in a coma, but we felt she could hear us, so each day we sat and talked to her. When I held her hand, there was a movement so I prayed she would recover. Sadly, a rush of blood to the back of her brain killed her. More than 100 of her friends came to the funeral, and meeting them all at the wake showed me how much she was loved and would be missed. My best memory of her is the amazing hugs she gave me — they made everything seem better.
Maria-Theresa Bechaalani, born October 19, 1971; died December 28, 2018, aged 47.