When a Charles Butcher customer was recently asked for its owners’ contact details, she replied she was “heartbroken” about its closure after half a century of service. It is not the expected reaction to the closing down of a shop that sells meat. And the extent of the feedback – and “sadness” – that followed the announcement “shocked” brothers Victor and Manuel Grech even though they had dedicated the last 50 years to the renowned Naxxar butcher and had built strong ties, spanning three generations, along the way. Located in Naxxar's main square, Charles Butcher is considered an integral landmark and customers have commented about using it as a reference point to give directions and described it as a “Maltese monument”. This week, the gentlemanly Grechs will serve their loyal clientele – often families they have seen grow – for the last time. It is a bittersweet feeling for Victor, who really needs a good rest before embarking on a new chapter. At 64, it is time for retirement after a physically hard job nobody in the family wanted to take on, working long hours since the age of 15. That was when he “automatically” stepped into the butcher business, opened elsewhere 70 years...