Rupert Grech's Blog, page 5

A heartfelt thank you to the Greater Lithgow Arts Council who have nominated me for a Lithgow Cultural Award. Local recognition is something very special and especially pleasing. I look forward to the Awards Ceremony in October, after I get back to Austral

Filed under: Writing

Qawmien (Resurrection)

Dionisio Bugeja’s oldest boy, Guido, was both excited and proud to be given the opportunity and responsibility of the task his father had offered him. The eldest son would be entrusted to take his father’s place on this occasion and sit with the dead man overnight, watching over the corpse for the grieving family. The […]

Il-Keffien No. 2

Dionisio Bugeja’s oldest boy, Guido, was both excited and proud to be given the opportunity and responsibility of the task his father had offered him. The eldest son would be entrusted to take his father’s place on this occasion and sit with the dead man overnight, watching over the corpse for the grieving family. The […]

Il-Keffiena (Preparer of Corpses)

Dreadful screams echoed all the way along Maitland Street, Hamrun, in the late afternoon of a cool, windy and overcast day in April. Like almost everyone else in the street, Lucia hurriedly stepped outside of her home and walked out onto the narrow footpath outside to see what had happened. By the time Lucia had […]

Il-Keffiena (the funeral arrangers)

Dreadful screams echoed all the way along Maitland Street, Hamrun, in the late afternoon of a cool, windy and overcast day in April. Like almost everyone else in the street, Lucia hurriedly stepped outside of her home and walked out onto the narrow footpath outside to see what had happened. By the time Lucia had […]

Thank you to the Lithgow View Club for inviting me to speak at their meeting yesterday. I never need much encouragement to talk about Malta, it’s amazing history and its role in the Second World War as the backdrop to “Stories My Parents Told Me” :) And th

Filed under: Writing

Thank you St. Mary’s Probus Club for your hospitality and for inviting me to speak about Malta, WWII and “Stories My Parents Told Me- Tales of Growing Up in Wartime Malta”.

Filed under: Writing

l-Anglu Taghna (Our Angel)

The Bugeja family had as rough and as deprived an existence as any in the working class suburb of Hamrun during the worst months of the 1942 siege of Malta. The fact that there were two adults and ten children to feed during those difficult times made it literally a hand-to-mouth way of life. Money […]

Coming Out, Coming Out

COMING OUT The epiphany struck as I found myself staring absentmindedly into the two poached-eggs-on-toast at breakfast, after a big night out of heavy drinking the night before. Suddenly, it all became abundantly clear. The years of subconscious denial melted away before my very eyes the moment I used my knife and fork to burst […]

More adventures from Harry

  Harry on his way to Spain recently My 84 year old father, Harry, accidentally locked the remote control that opened his automated garage door, in his car which was parked inside the garage. He was distracted and locked the door from the control on the wall, on his way out, after washing his car. […]