Paul Darmanin writes:
The news of Mario’s fatal accident spread across Malta like wildfire. It was such a great shock to us all – his friends and acquaintances – that we shudder to think what his family must have gone through on that terrible night.
Mario always had a smile on his face, even when he spoke about the problems each of us must encounter in our lives. He would hardly look you in the eye as he blushed on greeting you, then he would invariably talk about the last film he had watched, as Mario was an avid cinema-goer who did not mind watching the same film twice.
We often met him walking along the Sliema front and we remember him telling us about the day he took his dog for a walk only to eventually realise his dog had managed to get away and he had been walking an empty leash for some time.
Mario was a man who could laugh at himself and relished in hearing others laugh when he recounted his latest anecdote. To those who knew him, these stories were a source of clean, healthy laughter.
Mario bent over backwards to help anyone who asked a favour of him. He would be genuinely happy to help you and would never expect or want to be repaid in any way.
He was constantly worried about his wife, his children and grandchildren, his brothers and sisters and their families and his dear mother Olga, even when there was clearly nothing to worry about.
Mario had an eternal smile on his face, as if meaning not to burden you with his problems. He always put the interest of others before his own and that was how he met his fate: asking the young couple to watch their step while he did the job he so loved. Mario was an excellent photographer who cared very little whether or not his next assignment paid well.
One could write about Mario forever and words would not do him justice. He was at peace with himself, with all those around him and with the Lord. His funeral service bore evidence of how much people really loved him and we can only hope his big family will find comfort in the knowledge that they were blessed with a truly unique person.
Mario is surely within the Lord’s eternal embrace, next to his father Emmanuel. Meanwhile, may his dear wife Anna, his sons Thomas and Edward and their families, his daughter Noelle, his many brothers and sisters and their families and especially his mother Olga, gain strength and live their lives as he would have wanted them to.
He loved them all too much to be the cause of any unhappiness for them.