Richard England writes:

It is a truism that with the demise of a friend, part of oneself also dies and an essential chapter is torn out of the book of one’s life.

Consolation may only come with the recollection of past shared memories. However, it is also a truism that to live on in the memory of those who loved you is not to die. 

I shared a very special and deep friendship with Maurice Portelli for over six decades and, although we had completely different life patterns and interests, our friendship was deeply anchored in an alchemy of mutual respect and reciprocal admiration.

I admired his razor-sharp business acumen and his brilliance and cognisance of the real estate market while he, in return, admired my passionate penchant for the arts, culture and architecture. 

Perhaps only those close to him knew that beneath his at times external raucous mannerisms, lay an internal altruistic, amiable heart, amply embroidered with generosity and love.

I shall forever retain in mnemonic telepathy the now lost shards of our shared and scented friendship; our many trips and entertaining evenings of mirth and laughter, all now lost threads of the woven tapestry of one’s life. 

His delectable fun-loving personality layered over with a mischievous sense of humour teemed every meeting with a wonderful sense of the very joy of life. 

Today, in mantras of melancholy, I could pen words of praise but it was not in his nature to accept acclamatory narcissism or self-aggrandisement. 

Conceit was not his custom. Instead, I shall choose to cherish and recall his friendship and the mirth and laughter we shared when his clown-like personality emerged. For he was an animated personality loaded with tales and narratives vividly anecdotal, spirited and salted with an abundant overdose of jocular humour.

My wife Myriam and I shall forever hold in memory his long and scented friendship... a precious legacy not to be forgotten.

To his wife Nadette and his daughters Arianne and Maryse, I convey my sincere and deepest condolences.

You will mourn his loss in a sorrow beyond sentience and with a grief that can’t be spoken, but you will also run your clocks backwards across the immeasurable distance of yearning to recall his egregious love and exuberant joy of life.

That is how you must remember Maurice and also as he would want you do... dream tomorrow and live life to the full.