The Wider Image: The first photo I ever took of my daughter, and the last
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 14-year-old cancer patient, performs some basic dance exercises for the first time in months, outside her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta, May 15, 2020. Rebecca was a very keen ballet, hip-hop and contemporary dancer before getting ill with cancer. "There are no words to describe how much I miss dancing. Dancing was like my way of communicating without words. I loved dancing with my friends and hope to do that again in the future!" said Rebecca. Reverend Brendan Mark Gatt spoke about the photo during Rebecca's funeral - "This graceful young woman, her body already ravaged by illness, standing in a hospital corridor which – however many cartoon characters you paint on the wall – will never be a place of fun and joy. And yet her indomitable spirit speaks to us even through this picture. What could have been a depressing image, a forlorn reminder of loss, of dashed hopes and unachieved potential is transformed; with Becs at its centre and through the eyes and lens of a loving father it becomes an image of hope, a reminder that hope is stronger than despair, and that life and love will have the final word, not death. For Becs, a hospital hallway railing became a dancer’s barre at which to practice her ballet moves; she reminds us that even through unimaginably excruciating physical suffering, the dancer inside her remains free." REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi SEARCH "REBECCA LUPI" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES THE IMAGES SHOULD ONLY BE USED TOGETHER WITH THE STORY - NO STAND-ALONE USES
