Stephen Young writes:

I was acquainted with Joe Caruana, known to his friends as ‘il-Currie’, in the late 1970s through family connections. I was immediately impressed by his stunning good looks, statuesque physique and charm.

Soon after, in 1979, Joe joined Air Malta as a trainee clerk, initially at the traffic services. But when he could not get used to night duties, he asked to be transferred to day work. Knowing that he was top of his class at the Air Malta trainee course, we managed to ‘poach’ him to work at the then administration department and he was assigned to work under me. Joe was quick on the uptake and a pleasure to work with. The only problem was that he attracted people like bees to honey, and I was always telling him off, not to detain people next to him.

In the meantime, Joe got married to Antoinette and, soon after, they had their first child, Karys. After settling into family life, in 1984 there was an opening for station officer at our Fiumicino station. With his personality, we thought Joe was ideal for the post and, although I knew we would miss him, we gave him the posting. Joe excelled in his work and soon advanced to another posting in UK, initially as station manager at Heathrow, and then as manager, administration, at Putney. Just before being posted to UK, Joe and Antoinette had their second child, Kim.

In 1989, Joe came back to Malta and was assigned to the marketing department, taking over sales duties. Joe was very happy at passenger sales but when he was given a transfer to cargo services, he thought that it was not what he wanted to do and, being a person with initiative, he decided to try his luck in the private sector. He joined Palm Travel in 1993, and after was offered a better position by Active Travel. During this period, his third and last child, Matthew, better known today as singer Matt Blxck, was born.

After learning all the ropes in the travel business, being hard-working and enterprising, Joe opened his own business as JAC Travel in 2003. His business went well, and he then opened his Buganvilla B & B in 2014. All this he did from his own house of character in Żabbar until he retired in 2019.

Joe was also a proud grandfather of three beautiful children, Zac, Lyla and Jamie. He used to tell me that he loved to babysit them while working at his travel agency.

I still remember his enthusiasm when he received his first pension pay in 2019. He was like a little boy with his first toy. He used to tell me that it was a pleasure to get paid for doing nothing after so many hard-working years. Alas, he did not benefit from his pension for long since, less than a year later, he left us for a better place.

Joe was positive till the end, even though he had known of his destiny for more than two years. He adored his wife Antoinette, who in turn stood by his side till his last breath.

My initial comment about Joe was that he was aesthetically beautiful, but leaving it at that does not do him justice. Joe was even more beautiful inside. He was kind, caring, honest, clever (he even won a junior championship in chess), witty and, most of all, a pleasure to just be with. What more, he had the knack to tell you the truth about yourself without offending you. All this made him very popular, and this showed at his well-attended funeral, even in these awkward days of the pandemic.

By the way, Manchester United lost one of their most dedicated and faithful supporters.

Joe, you will always be a part of my life. Rest in peace my dear friend.