A year after losing both her parents in a fatal accident in Croatia, YPA – Your Personal Assistant Founder Ilona Busby has reflected on the role that understanding and support within professional relationships can play when someone is confronted with a personal crisis.
Ms Busby’s parents, Jeremy Gambin, 68, and Lorraine Gambin, 67, were among four Maltese people who died after their vehicle veered off Croatia’s D8 coastal road and plunged into the sea in October 2025. Their friends Kevin Bonnici, 67, and Alexandra Bonnici, 66, also lost their lives in the accident.
Marking a year since receiving the phone call informing her of the accident, Ms Busby reflected on how quickly circumstances can change despite the plans and commitments people make in their personal and professional lives.
“We make plans. We organise our days, our businesses and our careers. We meet deadlines, make commitments and assume that tomorrow will look somewhat like the day we had planned,” she said.
However, she said the experience also highlighted the importance of the people with whom she had built professional relationships.
According to Ms Busby, clients and others she worked with responded to the tragedy with “understanding, patience and genuine support”, giving her the space she needed at a time when she had little capacity to focus on work.
“At a time when I suddenly had very little capacity to think about work, there were no unnecessary pressures or expectations and only humanity,” she said.
For the YPA founder, the experience reinforced a principle she believes can sometimes be overlooked in business: that the individuals behind professional responsibilities may be dealing with circumstances that are not immediately visible to colleagues, clients or employers.
“Behind every role, every deadline, every target and every email is a person whose life can change completely from one day to the next,” she said.
Ms Busby added that providing people with space and support during particularly difficult periods can have a significant impact, while expressing gratitude towards both the personal and professional networks that supported her following the accident.
She said that, a year later, the passage of time had not made the loss easier, but the experience had strengthened her appreciation for humility, gratitude and kindness in both personal and professional relationships.
“Life can change in a moment and in ways we never see coming,” she concluded. “That’s why humility, gratitude and kindness matter so much and the way we show up for each other – personally and professionally – can change everything.”
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