I miss Malta.
I miss Malta a lot.
I wish that I die in Malta.
Next to the church.
The church is next to me.
But it's impossible.
It's not easy
to go and live in Malta now.
It’s not easy.
I was born in Malta.
Saint Dominic Street,
Valletta, 7th February 1922.
In Valletta,
they are all narrow streets.
They are a very, very old place
since the Romans.
Everybody knows everybody
very close to each other.
"We might take two, three minutes
to go all around"
They were simple people,
very simple people,
very Christian,
very keen to help with the church
for the feasts we have.
St Dominic's
is a special church for Valletta.
St Paul's feast.
We've got a beautiful
cathedral.
It's the best in the world.
My grandmother
and Auntie Rose
lived all their lives with us.
My grandmother was like
Queen Victoria type
and she used to love Queen Victoria.
She used to mention her a lot.
I remember clearly
they used to go with the...
għonella. We used to call it għonella.
It was big,
wide that much.
And you can cover yourself like that.
My father was from Greece,
from Corfu.
They say that he ran away.
Rose used to say he was 16,
but they never mentioned
anything about his life.
I don't know. Nothing.
Nothing.
He never mentioned
how he came to Malta.
I used to go and learn
the combini, how to make the lace.
I was 4 year old.
And I remember that.
We used to pay one penny a day.
Well we were eight
in the family.
We lost one.
He was 17.
I was seven years old
when he died.
My brother Piu,
he died in three months.
TB.
"Those days,
no chance that you recover."
I went for 12 months for some lessons
as a dressmaker.
"But then I kept on trying
and trying and trying."
And I used to do dresses for my sisters
and the boys.
"I used to do a lot of clothes
for the boys."
Beautiful clothes.
I was 14.
1936
Dad was 15 and five months.
He was a handsome man, no?
He was clever. He was well known.
He was mad about football
and he was really good at school.
I met him at the Upper Barrakka.
With my friends. I had friends.
He had friends.
The young ones, we used to meet Barrakka.
Having fun.
"They used to have all the Italian songs
that keep you happy."
Everybody writing the songs,
you give it to each other.
We’ve got beautiful life.
Before the War, we had beautiful life.
One day, yes, my brother went
"and ask him not to go out anymore
with me"
because we were too young.
We were too young.
We started too early.
But he never let go of me.
From the first day,
he said to me,
the first word he said to me,
“I’m not going out
to just to pass my time.
I’m serious”.
That’s the first word he said to me.
There used to be a lot of ships,
especially before the War.
"Most of the people in Malta,
they got the jobs:"
soldiers,
police
and the Navy.
Officials and captains,
they used to live in Malta for years.
They must be stationed
for two years, three years, four years.
And they loved Malta.
The English people loved Malta a lot.
They fight with the Maltese.
"They got drunk
and they fight with the Maltese."
That's all I can remember.
I remember going in the Opera House.
I was about six, eight.
I saw
Madame Butterfly,
Aida
and Carmen. My brother, used to play
in the Royal Opera House.
Beautiful place.
Beautiful place.
Big, big tragedy
when it was blown down,
the Royal Opera House.
Such a beautiful place.
Mussolini betrayed us because Malta,
it was Italian before the War.
Most of the people were Italians.
Mussolini betrayed the Malta.
The first air raid was 7:00 in the morning.
And the first bomb
hit a family.
A woman had a baby
of two days, of two days.
And she has another two kids.
She was in bed with the baby
and she put the two kids on her bed
and it hit their place.
They died.
I saw the battle of the Illustrious
"in Floriana.
It was at the beginning of the war."
It started
about 10:30,
and it was such a big, big air raid.
It was two and a half hours.
Oh, my God!
We saw them.
You can see them
"because we were very close
to the Grand Harbour."
"Only one block away from
the Grand Harbour"
Horrible. Horrible.
From the first day of the War,
we tried to run away from Valletta.
Mdina was a bit far away from
Valletta, the Grant Harbor.
Once,
we were not married yet,
we saw a fight.
It was in a big hill in Mdina,
in the highest peak of Malta.
"And we were there
and we were watching a big,"
big air raid.
The Grant Harbour was in a huge fire.
We never forget that.
We never forget that. It was in a huge,
big, big fire.
The World War is in 39
and we got married 41.
I wasn’t 20 when I got married.
"Oh, I tell you the story of the
wedding day!"
Oh, my God.
I ordered the horse and carriage
to come for me 1:30.
And it was winter
and they came for me
4:00.
Already,
it was December,
already getting dark.
"And those days there wasn't any busses,
anywhere."
You don't find a bus
because they used to keep them
for only people who work,
otherwise they won't have any
petrol.
"They were very short of petrol
and things like that."
So we got married in the dark.
I had the party in just a small room
with few people,
family who were 10, 12.
10:00
we heard it an air raid.
His mother and his father,
they had to go to Floriana.
"They never had any transport
to go to Floriana,"
so they had to sleep
in our...
we used to live in a small flat
and they stayed in the lounge.
My new husband
and myself in a small bed,
my brother next to my husband
and my sister
stayed near me in one bed,
single bed.
That was my wedding day.
And we had a small place
of our own, and we unfortunately,
it was bombed down
three months after we got married.
We lost everything.
What we had.
We lost everything.
I never told you what happened to me
on my 20th birthday.
We couldn't celebrate
the birthday on the 7th of February,
and we had to celebrate it a week after.
We were going to the picture
and we met one of his mates, schoolmates,
and we we were talking,
we were going to the Regent.
"And he said to us,
“I'm going to the Manoel [Theatre]”."
He said to us,
"“Come with me,
we haven't been seeing each other"
for a long time.”
And we went to the Manoel.
"After the Manoel finished
it was about 5:00"
I think if I remember correctly.
There was a big fight,
Strada Stretta.
"The sailors, used to go in during the day
and they used to fight a lot"
with the Maltese
and we kept on walking.
All of a sudden they were saying,
“Air raid, air raid, air raid!
The red flag is on.”
The shelter was under the Court
and the Court was...
Here is the Regent,
across the road from here
up to there, it was the Court
and we'd run to go
in the Court.
By the time we're going in the Court,
the bomb fell on the New Regent.
It fell.
Then we were very upset.
His parents were waiting for us
in Floriana and that was it.
It was a miracle.
It was a miracle.
That's the first miracle in our life.
"After the war most of the
buildings were"
damaged.
Most of them.
They were damaged, but they were strong.
But we lost a lot of homes.
We left Malta
on the 26th of April 1949,
and we arrived 35 days,
29th of May 1949.
Everything is closed.
It was Sunday.
It was a big difference for us.
We we were young and we didn't know
what was going to be.
We like it: yes or no?
"All I can say it was a shock for me
for sure."
Big shock.
But I never said a word.
I never said a word that I'm not happy.
Oh, my God.
I never...
"Until about two years ago
I never stopped "
sewing.
How much sewing I did in my life.
Oh, my God.
"When the weddings are on,
I used to wake up 4:00"
to finish up the clothes.
I did one all lace for Doris.
And I did one for Josie,
but Carmel
used Doris’ dress
"because Carmel was married 10 months
after Doris."
It was too much for me to start again
"from the beginning
to do new clothes, shoes."
She was complaining
because she was wearing second hand dress.
"I'm very proud of my children
and my grandchildren."
They are gorgeous kids.
I loved them so much
from the bottom of my heart.
I'm getting nearer and dearer
and nearest to be away.
For good.
But that’s in God’s hands.
We thank God for these 50 years,
which they have spent together
in married life with their families.
Thanks to God.
We were married for 62 years.
That's a long time.
And we thank our friends
"for coming here
to celebrate with us this union of 50 years."
Thanks be to God.
We stay together til we died.
Til he died
Before he died,
two days before he died,
two days...
it was Wednesday.
He died on Friday.
He said to me.
I said to him, “I love you darling.”
He said to me, “What are you talking about?
I’ve loved you all my life.”
That’s what he said to me.
That’s the last word.
Where I never saw him again.
"because he died in one
of the nurse’s hands."
And he was so well.
A clot.
I got
hundreds of love letters.
You read them and read them
and read them and read them.
all the time.
People in the street,
they stop me
and tell me
how much he loves me.
At church,
in the supermarket,
in the street,
I meet people,
and tell me how much he loved me.
I miss him so much.