Every Tuesday for the past three years, Virginia Maher compiled the Slice of Life column in this space, recounting stories published in the South China Morning Post in years gone by. For this week's column, the veteran journalist had already picked out the year on which she had wanted to concentrate - 1968 - but she was never to finish it. She died in hospital on Easter Sunday.
Whether sending a reporter on an assignment or convincing friends to visit sick children in a New Territories hospital, Virginia Maher's oft-heard phrase was 'Off you go'.
Nobody argued with her command, with its blend of bossiness and encouragement.
Born in Shanghai on New Year's Eve 1945, the feisty writer affectionately known as Ginny was just five years old when her family fled to Macau in 1951. There, she was housed with other Shanghai refugees at dog kennels at the Canidrome, along with her three sisters and parents Maria and Fausto.
After moving to Hong Kong in 1960, she attended Saint Francis Canossian College, where the Mother Superior set her on the road to her future career by introducing her to the Students' Press Group, which published students' articles for the Catholic weekly, the Sunday Examiner.
On leaving secondary school, she joined the Post as a cub reporter in 1965 and stayed for three years before joining TVB.
