REMEMBERING
AUNTIE LENA...

By
Dr Michael Bugeja

I have so many memories of Malta, it's hard to pick a favorite. Back then I was studying at the University of Austria and decided to take a quick trip to Malta via train to Syracuse and then boat to the harbor. I remember showing up unannounced in Marsa at my Auntie Lena's house. This is a woman who lived with the rest of my family in the catacombs during World War II, happy to share a potato. She knew the meaning of hunger. Well, I was hungry after my voyage. I sat down to pastries and tea and a good salad. Then Auntie Lena brought out a bowl of rabbit stew from the tiny kitchen in the back of the house on Jesuit Hill. I ate the stew and felt content, thinking the dinner was over. She returned to her kitchen and emerged with a heaping dish of burnt lasagne and ham. I recalled my mother's warning about not turning down food as a guest in a relative's home. So I ate slowly, leaving a clean plate. My auntie was pleased. When she took my dish to the kitchen, I assumed that she was cleaning up and used the opportunity to loosen my belt. Yes. She returned with a dish of fried eggs and bacon slabs. Auntie Lena was literally cleaning out her cupboard in gratitude for my visit. But I was becoming whoozy. To top off the bottomless meal, she had baked bread pudding. This time I protested. But so did she. Nearly six feet and more than 225 pounds, she towered over me as I ate and tried to keep down what I ate. When she returned to the kitchen, I got up and said I would take a walk. "What about the lime Jell-O?" she asked, holding out a shimmering glass of it in the doorway. This was 1972, and auntie supported Mintoff, picketing against the British and rallying for independence. "Lime is for Limeys," I told her. She nodded and let me go for my walk. I treked to Valetta that afternoon and returned that evening, thinking about auntie and food. She was trying to show me that Malta had changed, that there would be abdundance again, that better times were ahead for all of us. She was right.

Michael Bugeja is a poet and writer whose work appears regularly in a wide range of publications. He is the recipient of several literary and teaching awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and an AMOCO Foundation Outstanding Teacher award. He teaches ethics and magazine writing at the prestigious E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and lives in Athens, Ohio with his wife Diane and two children, Erin Marie and Shane Michael.

E-mail to Dr Bugeja

Return to the Main Malta Page