Appreciation - Charles Camilleri

Frans H. Said writes:

I had come to know Charles Camilleri during the late 1940s. We were in the same class at the Lyceum in Valletta. It was a time when I had become a personality in connection with children's programmes. During the same period, Charles had started to build a name for himself as he used to play his favourite accordion during a programme for farmers broadcast on the cable radio known as Rediffusion. He needed the few liri he was paid to pay for his music lessons.

The Camilleri family were not too keen to have their son choose a career in music. Both his mother and father were scared that the teenager would abandon his academic studies in favour of the arts. Charles had been a bright student and even the Lyceum masters used to admonish him about the time he spent studying music. In the long term they were all proved wrong. Charles had the vision and stamina to work hard to attain his dreams. Many of his class mates, myself included, could not appreciate the great and brilliant future he had in front of him.

His motto was: If you believe in something strongly enough in life, if you are really determined to succeed at what you set your mind to, then you'll make it. The important thing in life is the journey and not the destination.

Since those early days we met on vary rare occasions, mainly during the Lyceum past students' reunions when I used to remind him of the wrong prophecy about him and that he managed to prove them wrong and, in fact, make a brilliant career out of music.

In 1994, Charles was a made an Officer of the Order of Merit, an honour he had earned through hard work and determination. Others can learn from his example. Give children the possibility to follow their wishes. There is more to life that mere academic studies!

Charles, you might have gone, but your legacy will live for a long time.