Appreciation - Emmanuel Abela

Alfred Fiorini Lowell writes:

Emmanuel Abela passed away on Wednesday, a few days after his retirement as Director of Information.

I first got to know Manwel in 1987 when we both joined the Prime Minister's secretariat. Over the intervening years, I increasingly came to appreciate his many human and humane qualities. As anyone who knew him can vouch, Manwel was a gentleman in all senses of the word. His commitment to duty was acknowledged by his superiors, his equals and those who served under him. It is enough to recall that, up to a few days before he died, he was on the phone from his hospital bed with his office understudy.

When writing about individuals after their passing away it is appropriate to use kind adjectives about them. However, in putting these thoughts about Manwel in writing, I do not do so only simply through convention but, much more so, through conviction. Anyone who saw him bear his cross throughout the months of his cruel affliction, the way he remained positive throughout, the way he shielded his family and intimate friends from what he must have been thinking so as not to increase their, not his, troubles, would surely have arrived to the same conclusion I draw here.

My enduring last remembrance of Manuel is of the smile on the day before he passed away. In answer to my question as to how he was feeling, he answered that, except for some slight niggling pain, he was relatively well. Surprisingly, his face showed little of the ravages wrought by his cruel disease.

May Manwel rest in peace and may his wife, children and extended family find the comfort to bear his loss.