Sincerely, Loree

In any normal year, this would have been the time that we would have just got back from a trip out of the country. But 2020 has been anything but a normal year and, although I didn't anticipate that the COVID-19 virus would still be around at the end of August, it is. And here we are. So, although I had not planned on doing another Armchair Travel post, I feel that, with most of staying put, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to do another one. I hope that these small glimpses of these places that I have been to will inspire you to travel to some of them as soon as it is safe to do so.

I never met my maternal grandfather. He died before I was born; before my mother, or any of her siblings, was married. All I know is what I've heard about him from snippets of conversations that remain embedded in my memory.

My grandfather was born on the 9th of August 1904. On the 10th of August the Catholic church celebrates the martyrdom of Saint Laurence, he who was roasted on a grate, and, as was the custom in those days, my grandfather was named Lorenzo but was more commonly known by the Maltese version of the name: Wenzu. On February 4th 1940, 4 months before war descended on Malta, he married my Nanna Rose. They would have 6 children together: 4 girls and 2 boys. By trade, he was a builder and there is still a small chapel in St Paul's Bay that he worked on and that has survived unscathed to this day. He died on his birthday in 1965.