Widowed Over Two Decades Ago, This Incredible Maltese Baker Kept Her Husband’s Work Alive
One of the most incredible aspects of Maltese life is having freshly-made, authentic Maltese bread delivered right to your door – if you are lucky enough to fall on the baker’s morning route.
In quiet village roads and town squares across the islands, their recognisable white vans packed to the brim with Maltese ħobża can be seen all morning, or until they run out of stock, whatever comes first.
Typically, the baker will be a man – but one Maltese woman who has been doing this special work for decades now has opened up about how she got into the trade, the incredibly hard work it involved and what it all means to her.
“I have been a widow for 21 years but my son and I took over my husband’s work,” Anna, who is in her 60s today, told the People of Malta.
“He died young, when he was 46 years old,” she recounted. “I started working with him when I was dating him at 16 and I am still here today when I am over sixty years old. Can you imagine when he passed away, I still had young children, I had to keep working to support them and at the same time do this work.”
Maltese bread
To have all those fresh products done every morning, ready for delivery, Anna needs to start cooking really early.
“I start working before 1am in the morning in the bakery and keep at it till late in the evening. I am already delivering by 5am. We do everything in this bakery, from bread, to ftajjar (flatbread) to honey rings,” she said.
Though bakeries have been delivering for years, less and less new bakeries are doing so, with Malta’s modern lifestyle making it convenient to grab a loaf of bread from the supermarket until 10pm, or later, in some localities. It’s not unthinkable to predict that bakers delivering fresh bread to your door will not be such a common sight in Malta within a few years.
But Anna will be at it for the time being, that’s for sure.
“I am used to this and love working, more than enjoying myself,” she beamed. “There are very few bakeries that deliver bread with vans and women doing it even less. Today’s women do not want to work like this, they are more concerned about their make up and nails.”
Let us know in the comments below whether you get your bread delivered fresh to your day everyday – and share this story to support Anna and the other hardworking bakers on the island
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