John and Anne lived at various places but the main family home was at number 14 Celtic Street, Poplar, London, UK 

 

John and Anne loved animals and had many pets over the years including little birds like greenfinches, canaries, bullfinches and bluefinches, they had a parrot and 2 snow owls, a ferret called Ben and a Squirrel Monkey. They had many dogs including 2 Pomeranian’s; Flin and Willow, plus 2 mixed wire haired pointers; Dusty & Gerry.

 

John loved his birds, he had an aviary in the garden plus a bird room at the top of the house where he would spend hours talking and singing to his birds. John used to visit the bird club on a weekly basis and would record his birds singing so that he could play it when he was out in the car. The only music John liked was country music, especially singers Johnny Cash and Charley Pride. He could play the guitar and would often play and sing along to country songs like Walk the Line by Johnny Cash. He also loved wildlife documentaries, western movies and films with the Ratpack and Humphrey Bogart. His favourite meals cooked by his wife were lamb roast and Maltese macaroni. He liked fig rolls, fresh figs, dates and loved liquorice all sorts. John was in the Royal Navy like his father and then worked as a cleaning operative (road sweeper) in the city of London.

 

John originally from Malta, was brought up by his siblings in Cospicua, as he lost both his mother and father at a very young age (5 when his mother died and 9 when his father died). Many stories have been told about John’s time in Malta, including how he once jumped in a Well for his wages after somebody threw them down it. His nieces and nephews have pointed out that John was the youngest and coolest of the siblings and was always playing jokes on them and used to look in the mirror and say to his niece “You’ll never have an uncle as gorgeous as me”. I remember he used to tell us that he was a pirate and other false tales. He was a very funny man and a big torment. Always pulling over to boys and asking them if they fancied his granddaughters, completely embarrassing us.

 

Anne, was an amazing cook, she worked in catering all her life and cooking was her passion. She could cook all kinds of cuisines from the world such as Maltese, Italian, Caribbean, Chinese etc. She would always be in the kitchen making some great dishes including the famous Maltese Rabbit Stew and Jewish Lokshen Soup. She would cook whenever guests were over, even if you said you were not hungry, you’d end up finding a plate in front of you with enough on it to feed an army. Anne also liked western films but her favourite type were Ninja ones (she loved Bruce Lee films).  She used to watch them so often, especially the old ones, she’d watch them over and over. She was nicknamed Ninja because of it. She also liked Chuck Norris movies and one her favourite movies was Dirty Dancing. Anne loved Soul, Reggae and R&B music, her favourite singers were Dionne Warwick and Lionel Richie.

 

Anne came from a Jewish background, her parents Betty Goldstein, a Polish Jew born in England, and Adrianus Harteveld a Dutchman from Scheveningen, Holland. Open Harteveld/Goldstein Tree

 

John and Anne lived in a 4 Bedroom house (1 of the rooms being used as Johns bird room), with 2 living rooms, one on the ground floor and the other on the first floor, but they mainly used the ground floor one. It also had a front and back yard (where Anne grew potatoes and John had his aviary).