Solomon Tefera, the Eritrean who died after a car crash early on Monday, was on the verge of moving to the US with his American fiancée and their one-year-old daughter.

After almost a decade in Malta, the 33-year-old was due to have a medical the day after he died as part of the process that would see him being relocated as a refugee.

Instead, his fiancée, Lisa Senecal, was making plans for his funeral.

“No one is ever prepared for this finality,” said Ms Senecal, 32.

We are opposites really. Solomon was very shy,sweet and quiet

Mixed with the agonising loss are painful regrets. The couple had argued when they last saw each other on Sunday afternoon.

“It wasn’t a big fight. He had many wonderful qualities but, of course, there were other things about him that irked me.

“But I would love to be able to argue with him again; to be annoyed by him again,” she said, her voice cracking butnever breaking.

“That is the irony. You only realise what is really important when it is too late.”

A qualified teacher with a Master’s in Education, Ms Senecal met her fiancée three years ago when she volunteered to teach English at the Marsa Open Centre while in Malta on a scholarship.

Eritrean’s fiancée now planning his funeral instead of family relocation

“We are opposites really. Solomon was very shy, sweet and quiet,” she said, allowing herself a smile at his memory.

Reflecting on the tragedy, she said Mr Tefera had left their house in Mosta at around 5pm on Sunday. The accident happened on Naxxar Road in Lija when he was returning home just after 2am.

According to police, Mr Tefera’s Peugeot 306 hit a tree and an electricity pole before coming to a halt in a field. He died in hospital at 6.15am.

One of the reasons Ms Senecal decided to speak to Times of Malta was because she was annoyed by the callous online speculation about her fiancée’s death.

Mr Tefera, a carpenter employed by a local firm, had obtained his Maltese driving licence several years ago and his car was fully insured.

Even if he’d just arrived, that would not make him any less of a person

“Although even if he had just arrived and he did not have a job, that would not make him any less of a person,” Ms Senecal said.

She was also irritated by suggestions he may have been drunk at the wheel, an illegal but all-too-widespread practice in Malta.

His friends insisted Mr Tefera had drunk only two beers throughout Sunday evening.

“I believe them as that is typical Solomon, he was not a big drinker,” Ms Senecal said.

“If I had been at the wheel I doubt I would have received the same comments. Why does no one comment about how this is a dangerous stretch of road?” she asked.

Ms Senecal was called at home in the middle of the night by an Eritrean who worked at Mater Dei Hospital and had recognised his countryman as the stretcher arrived.

When she reached the hospital she was informed that her partner was in a very critical condition and his heart had stopped for 20 minutes. The looks on the nurses’ faces told her to prepare for the worst.

Walking further in, she met doctors who told her he had died.

Clutching her daughter Maya to her chest, Ms Senecal entered the room.

“I knew I couldn’t leave her. I just knew if I hugged her to my chest she would be OK. She could only see his foot and she said ‘Daddy’. I said ‘that’s him’.

“Then I started singing a song to him that I usually sing to her.

“Instead of singing her name I sang ‘Daddy’, and she was humming with me. She saw him, but she didn’t understand.”

Before the tragedy, Ms Senecal had planned to fly back to the US on September 20 with their daughter. They had been told Mr Tefera would be able to join them by the end of this year.

Now she is engaged in painful and complex discussions with her fiancée’s family and friends about possibly repatriating his body to his homeland.

When the finalities of the funeral are over, Ms Senecal plans to return to her home state of Vermont to spend time with her family.

“It’s very peaceful there, very beautiful, especially in the fall,” Ms Senecal said, allowing herself another happy memory, and another fragile smile.