Finally, some closure for the family and friends of MH370 victims.

A barnacle-covered piece of metal that washed up at Réunion, a small island off Madagascar, may have finally brought some closure to the families of the 239 people on board flight MH370.

The Malaysian Airlines flight vanished into thin air somewhere over the Indian Ocean in March 2014. Since then, the victims’ loved ones have endured 515 days of uncertainty.

The plane debris – part of an aircraft wing section – discovered on Wednesday last week was confirmed to be part of the Boeing 777.

In the week since the part was found, we can only imagine the families of the 239 people on board – including six Australians – were trying not to get their hopes up that they will finally have some answers.

They have been through this roller coaster before, with previous reported sightings of debris, pings from black boxes and massive underwater searches.

They have lived through all manner of theories being bandied around in media outlets all around the world – from reports the plane was hijacked by a terrorist group or cyber-terrorists, brought down by a suicidal pilot, or that it landed in a remote area.

We can’t begin to imagine the magnitude of the pain the families have endured over the past 500-odd days of waiting. The uncertainty. The devastation.

Because how do you grieve properly and fully when you have no closure?

How do you go about daily life with so many unanswered questions?

How do you remember your loved ones when you can picture countless different ways in which they may have spent their final moments – or hold out hope that they are still alive, somewhere out there.

Related: The final minutes of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Six Australians were on board that flight.

Brisbane couple Rod and Mary Burrows, who were eagerly expecting their first grandchild just weeks later, were on a long-planned overseas trip with friends, keen travellers Robert and Catherine Lawton, from Queensland.

Sydney couple Gu Naijun and Li Yuan, both in their 30s, were also passengers on the doomed flight.

New Zealand man Paul Weeks is among the missing. The 39-year-old fly-in, fly-out engineer had moved to Perth with his wife, Danica, and their two young children two years earlier.

In March this year, to mark the one-year anniversary of the plane’s disappearance, Danica said she still didn’t know what to tell her sons – Lincoln, 3, and Jack, 1 – about where their Daddy is.

“Twelve months on, I know no more of what has happened to my soulmate, best friend, amazing father and husband, than I did on March 8th 2014,” she said.

“And I know they say you should always tell children the truth, but what is the truth here? I wish desperately someone would tell me!”

In a letter to Paul, she wrote:

“I so hope one day you get to come and see him there and hear Jack talking and developing.

You would be so proud of them both, but I know you already were. As we knew Linc would for those 28 days you were meant to be away, he misses you so much.

It breaks my heart when he cries for you or begs me to bring you home.

It is so unfair on them missing out on you and you them. But I only hope I can do that my darling; bring you home to us.

I wish this every day and will never give up trying.

We need you, and nearly a year on with no idea of where you are or what has happened, our life is not complete without you and never will be. Please come home, please come home.

Danika and all the other families affected by the disaster are in our thoughts today.

For more on MH370, try these articles:

Wreckage is the wing of missing plane MH370 says French aviation expert.

MH370’s black box beacon battery was expired, a new report reveals.

MH370: Families told their loved ones were feared dead via text.

The question everyone’s asking today about missing flight MH370.