Stories My Parents Told Me: Tales of Growing Up in Wartime Malta

By Rupert C. Grech

Stories My Parents Told Me: Tales of Growing Up in Wartime Malta is a collection of seven short stories based on actual events during World War II on the Mediterranean island nation of Malta. The stories describe a difficult time for children and their families where survival was paramount and family ties were what sustained them. These stories are interspersed with snippets of history, factual details and descriptions which establish a setting for tales which are, at times, emotionally moving and, at other times, bring a smile to your face. These stories also describe a culture of a time past for a deeply religious and frugal people.

Early reviews:

“Have now read them – and love them! Wonderful human stories. (Rupert Grech) is a talented writer. Terrific!” - Barry York, Ph.D., OAM; Historian, Museum of Australian Democracy.

“(Rupert Grech) is a very good raconteur. I enjoyed reading the stories, some of which are touching and very moving” - Mark A. Sammut, Author/Freelance Journalist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: FARAXA Publishing
• Release date: Aug 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9780989302852

Rupert C. Grech

Rupert C. Grech is a first generation Australian born of Maltese immigrants. For the first seven years of his life, he lived in the poorer suburbs of inner Sydney, later moving to the western suburbs. Rupert graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Economics and a Diploma in Education, during which time he also played A-Grade Rugby League in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. He then returned to his studies and completed an honors degree in Human Geography at the University of New England. His thesis addressed the issue of chain migration from Malta to Australia. After teaching for five years, Rupert Grech backpacked around Europe for six months, during which time he first visited Malta. Returning to Australia, he owned and managed a lunchtime cafe in the Blue Mountains area of New South Wales for six years, after which he returned to teaching in the same area while concurrently running his 114-acre beef cattle property, singing and playing guitar and bass in various pub bands; filling in as a part-time radio announcer and writing a column in the local newspaper. Rupert Grech finished his career in education after spending nine years as headmaster in two, small, regional schools in New South Wales. Later he purchased an apartment in Marsaxlokk, Malta. The author now spends half of each year in both Australia and Malta writing, performing as a musician and traveling.

Book preview

STORIES MY PARENTS TOLD ME

Tales of Growing Up in Wartime Malta

by

RUPERT C. GRECH

Smashwords electronic edition

Copyright © 2013 Rupert C. Grech – All rights reserved.

The doll portrayed on the front cover is the Poupée Effanbee of 1940.

All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or submitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, without the prior written consent of the publisher. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

First published in 2013 by FARAXA

www.faraxapublishing.com

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DEDICATION

To my loving parents, Clotilde and Harry Grech

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks are due to Joanne Micallef, director of FARAXA Publishing; Marcelle Bartolo-Abela, Charlotte Smith, Kathleen Compton, Mary Ann Caruana, Miriam Thurston, Doreen Conroy, Stevon Orlando, Patricia Croghan, Sonia Grech, Christine Xuereb, Marilyn Hodgson and Kim DeGovric for their help, support and encouragement to write and publish this book. Thank you.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Prologue

Stories My Parents Told Me: Tales of Growing Up in Wartime Malta

Il-Pupa (The Doll)

L-Għeneb (Grapes)

L-Għarusa (The Fiancée)

Għawdex (Gozo)

Id-Dar Bla Kera (The House Without Rent)

Jum l-Imperu (Empire Day)

Ħobż u Ħaxix (Bread and Vegetables)

Epilogue

Credits

About the Author

Contact Information

FOREWORD

Rupert C. Grech’s Stories My Parents Told Me is a lovely collection, based on stories his parents handed down of Malta during the period of World War II. Rupert has conveyed the stories with skill and charm. They make for a very engaging read and one learns about Malta in the process. Through tales about dolls, grapes, a ‘house without rent’ and four others, the reader feels immersed in Malta – its folklore, its history and culture. Through these stories, told with enormous affection, we experience the backdrop of war and suffering but also the foreground of the human spirit, family life and the unexpected. Religion, social divisions, ‘Empire Day,’ memorable individual characters (including a ‘Quasimodo type’), lampuki, prickly pears, Gozo, local music bands, Dun Ġorġ and tal-Mużew, ghosts . . . and, of course, emigration, all feature in the tapestry that has been so finely woven by the author.

Like Rupert Grech, I was very fortunate to have parents who told stories from their past, in my Maltese father’s case, stories of Malta and of the war. I highly recommend Rupert’s book to the Maltese in Malta and those who settled overseas – as well as the many visitors to Malta who wish to learn about its people, history and culture.

Barry York, Ph.D., OAM

Historian, Museum of Australian Democracy

PROLOGUE

Most adults can remember family stories which were recounted to them by their parents while growing up. Little vignettes about a mysterious time before one was born, which gradually became familiar, comfortable and predictable with multiple retellings. These tales were fascinating to us as children because they spoke of a time in the lives of our parents before they had become what we had always known them to be. The stories became part of family folklore and described different places, different values and different customs, while giving a little insight into the past lives of our ancestors.

The tales were intriguing because we could imagine the feelings our parents experienced, as though we had been magically transported back to those days ourselves. Sometimes, the stories were so different from our personal experiences and clashed so greatly with our sensibilities that they seemed incredible. At other times, they could build up the bonds between parents and children by allowing us to identify with our mothers and fathers when they were children themselves.

These stories also gave us some insight into the psyches of our parents. Knowing their past significant experiences helped to explain their personalities to some extent and shed light on some of their particular beliefs or attitudes – those special events which loomed so large in the consciousness of our parents as to warrant the telling and retelling of these tales to their children.

The events in these stories must have been formative to some degree. It can be argued that it is their reactions to these experiences and events that contributed to their own personal paradigms. Perhaps the tales also help to explain some eccentricity or idiosyncrasy where no other explanation is available. Listening to the life stories of your parents can be something of a revelation.

The tales recounted to me by my parents were all of these things. They were made all the more fascinating because, being set in faraway Malta, they were very exotic to a boy born and raised in suburban Sydney, Australia. An added bonus in listening to these stories was the imparting of increased identity to a child of migrants who was aware – at times, painfully – that his story was different from that of those around him.

Over recent years, I have been thinking seriously about writing down the tales recounted by my parents, with the first tale – that about il-Pupa – being the major catalyst. I would find myself seeking out more details from my mother over a cup of tea and from my father over a shot of whisky in the evenings, committing them to memory and jotting down points of interest when I got home. Thus, the research process for this book was warm and pleasurable in itself. While writing, I would sometimes phone my mother or father to clear up a point or get a more detailed