The very first time I heard his soft spoken musical voice was at a cinema in Sliema.

Someone had drawn curtains over the cinema screen and the stage was bare except for Mgr Grech to speak to us teenagers.

My friends and I were rather irritable. We had come to watch a film and instead someone thought we’d be impressed with this robust short priest with the kind eyes.

We thought he was making mountains out of molehills when he described the drug situation in Malta in the future. He made it sound as if Malta would literally be drowning in drugs.

Oh, how right he was and how naïve and young we were! There we were, thinking that in 30 years our children would be living in an ultimate paradise for the rest of their lives!

How can I describe my relationship with Mgr Grech? That he was there for me when I spoke and he listened? That he made a lot of suggestions which made a lot of sense?

That just hearing his voice, that golden velvety voice, made me hear another voice saying “it’s going to be alright, Val, it’s going to be alright”. All I know is that when I watched him on television when his biography was broadcast, the memories of a long time ago came flooding back and I prayed to God to let him stay on earth for many more years. Drug addicts need you so much.

Us parents need you so much, Mgr Victor Grech.

Valerie Borg

Valletta