The Life of Emanuel Muscat
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| Emanuel in around 1965, aged 37 |
Died: Ermington, Sydney, Australia, 2 January 2022
Emanuel John Joseph Muscat was born at 1:00 pm on Monday, 9 January 1928 in the country village of Dingli, Malta, at that time a British Crown Colony. His birth certificate records the father as Carmel Muscat, labourer, age 39, born in Floriana, “who declares that he cannot write”. The certificate records the mother as Rosa, age 32, housewife, born in Dingli, the wife of the said Carmel. Of Carmel, the certificate states “father unknown” and of Rosa her father is recorded as “Joseph Camilleri, dead”. The tragic death of Joseph Camilleri, age 55 years, on 6 January 1904 after falling from Dingli Cliffs is commemorated by a wall-plaque near the scene.
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| Wall-plaque commemorating Emanuel's grandfather |
Carmel Muscat’s birth certificate states that he was born on 9 July 1888 at Central Hospital (Floriana) to mother “Therese Muscat (single) - Dingli” and “unknown father”. According to their marriage certificate, Carmel Muscat, farmer, aged 27, married Maria-Rosa Camilleri, housewife, aged 19, at Dingli on 31 July 1915. By the time of Emanuel’s birth, Carmel and Rosa already had five children who survived infancy, Joseph, Anthony, John, Lucy and Frances. After Emanuel, they had four more, Marie, Charles, Paul and Tessie.
Under the prevailing custom, the eldest son was named after the father’s father and the second son after the mother’s father. But later sons could be named freely. Given his date of birth, Emanuel’s name appears to have been chosen for its traditional association with the Christmas season: “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
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| Dingli Cliffs |
Dingli sits on one of the highest points in the Maltese islands, over 250 metres above sea level near the high cliffs that form the south-western coastline of Malta, the main island. It is thirteen kilometres south-west of the capital Valletta and two kilometres from the nearest larger town, Rabat. The name is believed to have originated from an English Knight of the Order of St John, Sir Thomas Dingley who apparently owned land in the area. Archaeologists have found artefacts around Dingli dating back to the Phoenicians and Romans, including the remains of Roman Baths.
Historical documents suggest that between Dingli and neighbouring Buskett Gardens, there stood a small village called Hal-Tartarni which formed one of the original ten Maltese parishes established in 1436. The noble family Inguanez had a lot of land in the area, and employed the population of Hal-Tartarni to work the fields. Over time, the people moved closer towards the fields, abandoning the original village. A new village eventually grew into Dingli and the site of Hal-Tartarni now consists of open fields. The parish of Dingli was established in 1678 and is dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady. Until the early twentieth century, it was rare for children to attend school. Boys worked in the fields while girls helped in domestic work. The village began to see more development after the mid-twentieth century when the population doubled from around two to four thousand.
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| Dingli village church, 1910s |
Emanuel didn’t know his father was born out of wedlock until late in life. His grandmother gave birth at the Central Hospital in Floriana instead of Dingli because of the child’s illegitimacy. The boy’s biological father was rumoured to be a local policeman. She did afterwards marry a different man surnamed Farrugia and they had children. Looking back at his youth, Emanuel recalled some spiteful remarks from villagers and relatives which he didn’t understand at the time. It didn’t occur to him to ask why his father had a different surname than the Farrugias.
Emanuel told a story of becoming seriously ill as a baby with a fever. Infant mortality rates in Malta were high in those days. A folk healer was called in. By some means an incision on the top of his right foot allowed pus to ooze out and he recovered. Emanuel would sometimes show people the mark on his foot. He recalled annoying his mother as a boy and in a fit of anger she threw a heavy lock-key at him. This left a permanent indented scar on his forehead. On better behaved occasions he served as an altar boy at the parish Church.
School attendance was compulsory in Malta by the time Emanuel was born. He appears to have attended the local Dingli public school from around the ages of seven to twelve, when the outbreak of World War II ended his education. Emanuel recalled that he was good at arithmetic and other students swapped sweets with him for help with their sums. He would have learned basic English. As a left-hander he was regularly wrapped over the knuckles by a school master and made to use his right hand. Over time became ambidextrous. One teacher’s idea of discipline was to boot students in the backside. Emanuel earned his dislike by stepping forward before the boot connected, causing the teacher to fall head over heels. Emanuel felt that he and his siblings suffered put-downs and lack of recognition from the school masters, who showed preference for students from more educated families.
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| Emanuel's father Carmel |
For a time in the 1920s and 1930s the British Government allowed Malta a degree of self-administration. An elected parliament was established and political parties came into being. On one side the Nationalists were identified with the interests of the upper-classes and the Catholic Church. On the other side the liberal Constitutional Party attracted support from other classes, led by Sir Gerald Strickland. Political affiliation tended to run in families and Emanuel’s father was a Strickland supporter. Political conditions became unstable and sometimes violent. At one point the Church banned Strickland supporters from receiving the sacraments. Emanuel recalled bitterly that a priest refused to hear his father’s confession. Later Emanuel was only mildly into Australian politics but he had an interest in Maltese politics. He supported the long-time Malta Labour Party leader Dom Mintoff, who followed in the path of Strickland. These experiences made Emanuel suspicious of Maltese priests. While not overtly religious, however, he remained a believing and practising Catholic all of his life.
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| Wartime destruction in Malta |
During the Second World War, particularly from 1940 to 1943, Malta was “the most heavily bombed place on earth”. As a vital British supply hub of the North African campaign, the island’s ports and airfields were continuous targets of German and Italian aircraft. Because of their high elevation, Dingli Cliffs were the site of two British Air Ministry Radar Stations which became a focus of attention. One day fire from a German fighter forced Emanuel to take cover while walking along a road near the cliffs. During another attack Emanuel and a friend dodged the local air raid shelter to watch the fighting, and were narrowly missed by a fragment of shrapnel. He also recalled watching aerial dogfights from a rooftop. These were years of scarcity as Malta was subjected to maritime blockade. But the family got by on produce from their farm. Two of the older sons Joseph and John served on British Merchant Navy vessels. Schools closed for the duration and Emanuel doesn’t appear to have resumed his education afterwards.
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| Possibly one of Dingli WW2 radar transmitters |
He went to work on the farm at the foot of the cliffs, a couple of kilometres from Dingli village. This involved ploughing the fields with a mule-drawn plough. Apparently the mule was skittish and prone to kick anyone approaching from the wrong direction. The family had outgrown the two-room house on Saint Roque Street in the village, just down from the church, so Emanuel and his brothers Charles and Paul slept in a room on the farm. They would cycle back and forth for meals. The brothers got up to some country hijinks, like the time they were told to dispose of an unwanted dog. Attitudes to animals amongst poor farmers of the time were roughly practical. They shot it with their hunting shotgun, tied it up in a sack and threw it into the sea beneath the cliffs. Two weeks later the dog returned so they kept it. The popular Maltese pastime of hunting interested Emanuel less than music, which became his great hobby or recreation in life. He learned to play the violin and clarinet before settling on his favourite instrument, the saxophone. Charles and Paul also took up music and some photographs of the time show the three of them performing at open-air venues. In Malta surnames are so common that people were known by their family or personal nicknames. The family’s nickname was “ta [of] tikni” (a word with no apparent meaning) and Emanuel’s personal nickname was “iz [the] zieqa” (pronounced zee-ha, also with no known meaning).
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| Emanuel playing saxophone, Malta |
Apart from tending to the farm, Emanuel helped his father at work as a stonemason on building sites. No doubt this is where he picked up the practical handiwork skills in carpentry, concreting, bricklaying and painting later put to good use in his own homes and those of his children. Carrying large sandstone blocks without mechanical assistance probably contributed to Emanuel’s bouts of right shoulder and lower back pain in later life, without slowing down his formidable work ethic.
Watching dogfights during the war must have had something to do with Emanuel’s decision to join the Royal Air Force. According to his RAF Certificate of Service, he enlisted on 3 September 1949 and was discharged on 2 September 1954 with the rank of Leading Aircraftman, one rank above the lowest. He was stationed at RAF Luqa air base, eastwards of Dingli. His civil occupation is noted as “stone dresser”. Emanuel is described as 5 feet 6 inches in height, “dark” in complexion with “dark brown” eyes and “black” hair. In terms of assessment ratings, his “conduct” is rated “very good”, “ability as aircrew or as tradesman” as “very good”, “cooperation” as “very good”, and “bearing” as “smart”. He sometimes told of his encounters with British officers, like the time he was pulled-up for not saluting. His excuse: “Sorry sir, it was raining and I didn’t see you”.
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| In Royal Air Force uniform |
On his RAF trades, the Certificate says:
Drives all categories of service vehicles (including category 2 vehicles). Carries out first-line servicing of vehicles, wheel changing, and minor repairs to inner tubes. Cleans, greases, and oils, vehicles. Under close supervision.
The “recommendation” part notes that:
During the period he has been employed in MT (Mechanical Transport) Section Luqa, he has shown himself to be honest, willing, obedient and a reliable driver. Capable of driving all vehicles up to and including 5 Tons capacity. Willing to undertake all kinds of MT Vehicle driving and would be well employed on MT work in a civilian capacity.
Honesty and willingness to work are qualities recognised by all who knew Emanuel. Although his father wanted him to take over the farm, he decided to emigrate. This couldn’t have been easy and leaving meant he never again saw his father, who died in 1958. Conditions in Malta were grim due to the wartime destruction. There was a wave of mass migration to places like Australia and Canada. His brothers John and Anthony had already left for Canada and Whyalla, South Australia. In a visit to the Canadian immigration centre, Emanuel was put off by wall-photos of frozen landscapes. With his friend Vince Farrugia (no relation) he opted to take up the Australian Government’s assisted passage migration scheme. They embarked on the Flotta Lauro passenger ship SS Surriento, third class passage, in November 1954 and after stops at Port Said, Colombo and Fremantle they disembarked at Sydney’s Walsh Bay docks on 8 January 1955. Around 3,381 Maltese immigrants came to Australia on board the Surriento between 1949 and 1955. Over the next four years, Emanuel and Vince knocked about together in boarding houses around areas populated by Maltese migrants like East Sydney, Darlinghurst and Woolloomooloo, and took on a variety of jobs.
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| SS Surriento, 1950 |
These included two seasons cutting sugarcane in Mackay, Queensland, along with many migrants of Mediterranean background. Some of the sugarcane plantations were owned by Maltese who came to Australia in the 1920s and 1930s. This was well-paid but back-breaking work since the cane was cut manually with machetes. The workers lived in barracks on the plantation during the cutting season and could save handy sums of money. Emanuel seems to have enjoyed the trips up to Mackay. He recalled how the season started with a burn off, sending hundreds of animals scurrying out of the thicket. He used the money from his first cane-cutting season to indulge his love of motor-cycles, buying a Triumph and later owning a Norton.
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| On the canefields, Mackay, Queensland |
In Sydney, Emanuel’s jobs included a stint at the Ford Motor Factory at Homebush and service as a tram conductor on the Eastern Suburbs line, which ran down Oxford Street. On weekends he played saxophone with other musicians at weddings and parties.
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| Man about town, Sydney, late 1950s |
He got around town on his motor-cycle wearing a favourite red shirt and black leather jacket. Someone said to him “you are the oldest Bodgie in Sydney”.
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| Motor-bike rider |
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| Sydney Tracodero, 1937 |
They in turn became engaged and were married on 16 January 1960. On their Certificate of Marriage, Father Rudolph Scerri, a Maltese priest attached to Saint Mary’s Cathedral, states:
The address at Cathedral Street appears to have been a boarding house. As witnesses the Certificate was signed by Vicky’s younger brother Tommy Tonna and Emanuel’s brother Paul, who had emigrated to Australia with his wife Bice and sons Charlie and Joe. Paul was Emanuel’s best man at the marriage ceremony scheduled for 5:30pm, followed by a reception at Balmain Masonic Hall, 6 Montague Street, Balmain.
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| Emanuel and Vicky at their wedding reception |
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| L-R: Vicky's brothers Tom and Charlie (with daughter Carmen), Emanuel's brother Paul |
Initially the couple lived at Vicky’s address in Pashley Street, the home of her cousin Joe Chetcuti and his wife Censa. Vicky gave birth to their first child Carmel, better known as Charlie, at St Margaret’s Hospital, Darlinghurst on 30 October 1960. In 1961 they bought and moved into their own house at 19 Parsons Street, Rozelle, an attached, single-fronted brick cottage not far from White Bay Power Station. When she met Emanuel, Vicky worked as a presser in the laundry at The Australia Hotel in Castlereagh Street, Sydney’s most prestigious hotel. Emanuel was found a position as a porter and barman of “outside parties” in the homes of Sydney’s wealthy elite, arranged through the hotel. These events offered many temptations for alcohol consumption. But Emanuel was scrupulously honest and his personal habits remained abstemious. He was a non-smoker and limited his drinking to a glass of wine with meals. Hating to be late, he was never without a good watch.
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| The Australia Hotel, 1949 |
In Australia, for some reason, almost everyone knew him as Bill rather than Emanuel (Maltese people including his wife called him “Leli”, the shortened Emanuel, and his sister used another variation, “Lelu”). One who knew him as Bill was the fiance of Vicky's brother Tommy, Colleen O'Brien, who was led down the aisle by Emanuel when she married Tommy in January 1961.
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| Charlie, Tommy, unknown and Emanuel playing, around 1960 |
After moving to Parsons Street, Emanuel found a new job at H & D McRae Carriers, a transport firm with a warehouse-depot in Mascot. Apart from a time in Malta from 1972 to 1974, he remained employed there for the next thirty years. Vicky’s brother Charlie was employed there as well. H & D McRae held the contract with Consolidated Press to store and truck the huge reels of paper used to print their newspapers. Emanuel operated a fork-lift loading and off-loading the reels and other goods. Vicky was now a housewife, so he took on additional duties to supplement the household income. Overnight from late Saturday to early Sunday he drove a H & D McRae truck delivering Consolidated Press papers to newsagents across Sydney. This is how he acquired an encyclopaedic knowledge of Sydney’s roads. While working for H & D McRae, Emanuel and co-worker Jack Crumlin, an older Australian who lived at Randwick, became friends and their families got to know each other.
Sadly, Vicky suffered a miscarriage after giving birth to Charles. Emanuel accepted the setback with his usual calm and even manner. When told the news, he reportedly replied “better luck next time”. Eventually John was born on 6 August 1963 and then, unexpectedly, Robert on 29 May 1967. Vicky remembers that each time she had a baby Emanuel brought her a bouquet of flowers at the hospital. Despite limited means, they chose to pay fees and educate their children at the local Catholic primary and secondary schools. Their life centred on family activities like visits to friends and relatives. Nor did Emanuel socialise much after work, preferring to return home and play his saxophone. The boys remember him taking them to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Battle of Britain at the movies. He was an undemanding husband but would not touch creams and butter or any food tainted with them. The family’s Sunday routine consisted of Emanuel sleeping in after his overnight paper run (while the others went to mass at St Joseph’s Church, Rozelle) and in the afternoon a drive out to the Merrylands home of Vicky’s brother Charlie, who had a large family. There Emanuel enjoyed playing his saxophone accompanied by Charlie and his eldest son Brian on the piano accordion. Tunes of popular songs like Spanish Eyes, Never on a Sunday and It’s Now or Never were often heard.
Emanuel’s tastes embraced the “Tin Pan Alley” songs of the 1950s and 1960s sung by crooners like Frank Sinatra, Al Martino, Tony Bennett, Perry Como and Elvis as well as the Big Band Era music of Glen Miller and Benny Goodman. These featured in his sizeable record collection as well as Latin American music and some classical violin recordings. But the high-pitched screaming style of Rock and Roll irritated him (dislike of screaming extended to a character in his kids’ favourite TV show, Dr Smith of Lost in Space). He wasn’t a fan of the Beatles, even though he had sheet music for some of their songs. He couldn’t stand John Farnham. On television he liked the type of music presented on The Bobby Limb Show. At some point he picked up the ability to write musical notation and one of his pastimes was adapting sheet music for saxophone by hand in musical notebooks. Emanuel had hopes to play with his sons and urged them to take up different instruments. In contrast he had next to no interest in sport. Otherwise, he liked to read paperback western novels with titles like Death Came Riding.
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| With son Charlie and Ford Zephyr |
Since his service in the RAF Emanuel retained a love of driving and motor vehicles, especially larger model cars. On getting married Vicky made him give up his motor-bike so he bought a white Ford Zephyr sedan. When it comes to Ford versus Holden, Emanuel was firmly in the Ford camp. He had a negative opinion of Holden and never shifted. In the early 1960s he replaced the Zephyr with a white Ford Falcon station-wagon and around 1970 proudly brought home a silver-grey Ford Galaxy sedan.
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| With John and Charlie and Falcon station-wagon |
Over this period Emanuel put his building skills to work on the small cottage in Parsons Street, extending the back rooms, painting, laying lino, replacing the front fence, building a shed and, his favourite activity, concreting the backyard. One of Emanuel’s rare flashes of anger was brought on by Charlie carving “Z” for Zorro in his wet concrete. Most of his weekends and summer evenings were spent adding some sort of improvement to the house. He even assembled and made items of furniture like stools. Around 1965 his sister Tessie’s fiancé Alfred emigrated from Malta with plans for Tessie to follow and marry him. Alfred stayed at Parsons Street for a couple of months until Tessie arrived. Emanuel gave her away at the wedding. His son Charlie was a page boy in the bridal party. Alfred and Tessie bought a house further along in Parsons Street.
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| With the boys and Ford Galaxy, around 1970 |
A while later Vicky received news that her father in Malta had a mild heart attack. She and Emanuel felt it was time to visit the families they hadn’t seen for almost fifteen years. On 5 July 1969 the family boarded a Qantas V-Jet and flew to Malta for a three month stay. This was a joyful time when Emanuel saw his mother, brothers Joseph and Charles, sisters Marie and Frances, and brother John who flew in from Canada. He was able to introduce them to his wife and children. A lot of time was spent at the house in Saint Roque Street, Dingli, which had been enlarged. Emanuel had time to catch up with old friends at the village Labour Club. Stretching over a glorious Maltese summer, the holiday was always remembered fondly. The family returned to Sydney on 13 September 1969.
Life returned to normal at home and at work. Around this time another of Emanuel’s siblings emigrated to Australia. Lucy and her husband Bernard Colecliffe with their two daughters arrived in Sydney by sea liner from the UK. Emanuel met them at the dock and they stayed in Parsons Street overnight before moving on to other accommodation. However, after Vicky’s father and then mother died in 1970, she seems to have felt homesickness and a yearning to live in Malta for good. By all accounts Emanuel preferred Australia, but he selflessly put his family first. In time the Parsons Street house was sold and he packed the family’s belongings into large wooden shipping crates made by himself. H & D McRae promised that a job would always be waiting for him. The family flew out to Malta on 22 May 1972, this time not planning to return. On arrival they moved in with Vicky’s sister Paula who now lived alone in the family farmhouse at Tal-Wej Road on Mosta’s outskirts. Emanuel found work at a livestock feed factory in the town of Marsa and bought a white Vauxhall sedan.
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| Farmhouse at Tal-Wej Road, Mosta |
Once again, his handiwork skills were put to work improving the house. The sandstone building had long origins in history, with two bedrooms and a hallway out front separated from the back kitchen by an uncovered courtyard. A bathroom ran off one of the bedrooms without access from the hallway. The kitchen looked like a strongroom designed as a refuge from Barbary pirates who regularly raided Malta in the sixteenth century. It had massive walls over a metre thick. The only window was a poke-hole measuring around fifteen square centimetres. With hardly any assistance, Emanuel erected an overhead shelter from the front section to the kitchen; laid a concrete path across the yard to prevent rainwater puddling; expanded the kitchen window to allow views of the fields beyond; cut an access doorway from the hallway to the bathroom through a stone wall; and extended the rear of the front section with an additional brick room. These changes made the house much more liveable. Paula was always grateful to him for making her life easier.
Emanuel was able to catch up with his mother and brothers Joe and Charles at Dingli most Sundays, although his sister Marie had passed away since 1969. His sister Frances lived in the town of Lija employed as a domestic servant. Vicky’s elder brother Charlie and his family had now left Merrylands and also settled in Malta permanently. Over time, however, Emanuel and Vicky rethought their decision to settle in Malta. The standard of living was lower than Australia and many locals seemed to resent returned migrants, including some of Emanuel’s co-workers at the factory. It dawned on them that their children might return to Australia when they got older. Eventually they decided to go back, which was probably a relief to Emanuel. This time they chose to travel by sea. On 27 August 1974 the family boarded the Lloyd Triestino SS Guglielmo Marconi which stopped at the Canary Islands, Cape Town, Fremantle and Melbourne before docking at Circular Quay in Sydney on 28 September 1974.
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| SS Guglielmo Marconi, Circular Quay, Sydney |
They stayed with Tessie and Alfred at their house in Guildford while searching for a new home. H & D McRae welcomed Emanuel with open arms. He returned to the same work duties, except for the overnight paper runs. Again, he put family ahead of himself, laying aside his own preference for a larger house with a garage in the suburbs. Vicky craved familiarity and was drawn back to inner-city Rozelle. As it happened a house at 4 Maney Street, another attached single-fronted cottage, became available for rent and they bought it a few months later. The boys were re-enrolled in the local Catholic primary and secondary schools.
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| On the fork-lift at work |
Maney Street was practically a bare shell, so Emanuel got down to work once more. He set about painting, extending the bathroom at the back, adding a laundry area, bolstering the flooring, laying carpet and floor-tiling, chipping paint off the frontage to expose bare bricks, and, of course, concreting the backyard. When he turned to building a shed, he found this required council approval. He completed the application form which Vicky lodged with Leichhardt Council. They said an architectural plan had to be attached. Emanuel drew a rough sketch on a scrap of paper and, without knowing what she was given, Vicky delivered it to the council. The “architectural plan” and application were duly approved. Over time the shed became Emanuel’s beloved workspace, with a bench, vice and a multitude of electric and hand tools, gadgets, spare parts, and family bric-a-brac stacked to the roof. Whenever he came across a bit of refuse that might come in useful, he brought it home to the shed. In the early 1980s the house needed extensions Emanuel couldn’t manage on his own. A professional builder was engaged to construct a second storey so that the boys could have their own rooms, but he played an active part in the building process.
On returning to Australia, Emanuel got back to driving Ford cars, this time a white Falcon sedan. In the late 1970s he bought a distinctive Ford Fairlane sedan with a red body and black vinyl roof. It was so distinctive that whenever Emanuel rang the mechanic, he identified himself as “red Fairlane here”. On Sundays the family outings involved long drives to picnic reserves like Carss Park near Kogarah Bay or Woronora Dam south of Sydney. They usually met up with Tessie and Alfred, Vicky’s cousin Joe Chetcuti and his wife Censa, and Joe’s brother Sam and his wife Helen. Sometimes other relatives came along. The families all had children of roughly the same age. The men played cards, which Emanuel enjoyed.
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| "Red Fairlane here" |
The boys progressed in their education and began entering the workforce. Emanuel enjoyed an easy-going relationship with his sons, supporting them in whatever path they chose. He was a steadying influence and guided by example, showing that he cared in practical ways like teaching the boys to drive. Later he was always ready to help with any handyman or renovation work around their homes and to make his car available. As time passed it became harder for Emanuel to play the saxophone. But for once, his hopes of playing together with his sons materialised around 1978 at a St Joseph’s Parish Christmas concert. He had a similarly laidback and accepting relationship with their wives and families. By the end of 1986 all the boys had completed their schooling and the family apart from Charlie visited Malta again for a short stay. By this stage Emmanuel’s mother had passed away at the age of 92 and his brother Charles died relatively young. The house at Saint Roque Street was occupied by his brother Joseph and sister Frances.
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| With elder brother Joseph, St Roque Street, Dingli, 1986 |
On the way home, Emanuel and his son John stopped at Rome for a day visiting the Vatican and other attractions.
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| In Rome, 1986 |
On 1 June 1989 Emanuel and Vicky were proudly sworn in as Australian citizens at a group ceremony performed by the Mayor of Leichhardt. Emanuel stayed with H & D McRae until around 1993 when an expected promotion didn’t eventuate. Then he resigned and moved to the printing firm of Hannanprint in Alexandria, doing similar work. During his years at H & D McRae he was a member of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) but now switched to the Printing and Kindred Industries Union (PKIU). He retired five years later at the age of seventy.
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| Citizenship ceremony, Emanuel and Vicky 5th & 6th from right |
In retirement he made good use of his last Ford, a burgundy Falcon. Emanuel’s routines with Vicky included shopping at favourite malls, bingo at Petersham RSL with a Maltese group, mass and other parish functions at St Joseph’s, visiting, and inviting family and friends for meals. Emanuel was generally plain-spoken with little interest in small talk. At social gatherings he was on the quiet side, partly because of growing loss of hearing. But he would sometimes offer a quirky opinion, like explaining his reluctance to consult doctors: “the government ordered them to kill off the old people”. He had an impish sense of humour, mostly in the form of provoking his wife. After leaving work he had more time to tinker in the shed for maintenance on the house, making furniture like coffee tables, and inventing door-handles, nutcrackers, window locks and other gadgets.
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| Burgundy Falcon |
Emanuel and Vicky signed up for group tours with friends to places like regional Victoria and the Gold Coast, and as the mortgage on Maney Street was paid off they started travelling overseas more often. In June 1991 they flew to North America visiting Vicky’s cousins in California and Emanuel’s brother John in Canada, getting to know his sons Charlie and Joe. John had himself recently spent some months visiting his siblings in Australia. Then from July to September 1994 they visited Malta again, fitting in a pilgrimage to sites in France, including Lourdes, and Spain. Another trip to Malta followed from March to May 2002, by which time Emanuel’s brother Joseph had died. Frances was the last of the family left in the old country. When she died soon after, Emanuel was appointed by his siblings to sell the house in Saint Roque Street. Emanuel and Vicky returned to Malta from May to August 2005 and sold the house, ending its long history of ownership by “ta tikni” family.
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| With the family, grandkids in front |
In the meantime, Emanuel experienced the joy of becoming a grandfather when Robert’s wife Marianne gave birth to Alexander Emanuel Muscat in 2002. They then had two daughters, Dominique born in 2005 and Isabella in 2006. Emanuel’s strong sense of family obligation now extended to babysitting the grandchildren when necessary. Their birthdays became special occasions at Maney Street. They were old enough for their grandfather’s 80th birthday party at Balmain Leagues Club in January 2008, attended by a large crowd of friends and relations. Among them were Emanuel’s brother and sister Paul and Tessie and their families. Virtually the same crowd celebrated his and Vicky’s 50th wedding anniversary on 16 January 2010 with a mass at St Joseph's followed by a party in Leichhardt. All the while, he was still helping his children improve their homes. At the age of 79 he was laying the concrete foundation for a shed in Robert’s backyard.
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| Still concreting at the age of 79 |
In his mid-eighties Emanuel began to show signs of memory loss and confusion, though his health was good for his age. Unfortunately, an earlier fall onto his right knee after a dizzy spell began to hobble him and, as usual, he refused to have the injury treated. His deteriorating hearing resulted in an award of compensation for industrial deafness partly brought on by years operating a fork-lift in noisy warehouse conditions. The award included cost of hearing aids but he thought these were too much trouble, and wouldn’t use them. He had the same dismissive attitude to dentures fitted for him when he lost some teeth.
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| With sister Tessie and brother Paul at 80th birthday party |
When the burgundy Falcon was nearing the end of its life, Emmanuel was finally persuaded to buy a different make of car that was smaller and cheaper to run – not a Holden, but a white Toyota Yaris. As time passed his encyclopaedic knowledge of Sydney’s roads began to fade. He relied on Vicky for directions but his handling of the car remained impeccable. He continued driving until December 2017, when at the age of 89 his doctor no longer certified him fit to drive. Being denied the right to drive came as a blow to Emanuel. But the Yaris stayed in the family, passing in turn through the hands of each grandchild as they took up driving.
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| With Vicky at 50th wedding anniversary party |
His family and friends celebrated Emanuel’s 90th birthday in January 2018, but in July of that year he was formally diagnosed with “dementia of at least moderate severity, likely Alzheimer’s pathology”. In March 2019 he fell at home and was unable rise, even with assistance from family. An ambulance had to be called. When this happened a second time, he was taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and later moved to a nursing home in Ashfield. He retained his easy-going manner and one more attempt was made to return him home, but this failed. In July 2019 Emmanuel was admitted permanently to Uniting Arrunga nursing home in Ermington. There the kind staff loved his impish humour and nicknamed him “King of Topaz” because he usually occupied a prominent seat in the wing of that name, as if presiding over proceedings. In early December 2021 he was briefly hospitalised twice with problems swallowing. His strong will and body finally gave out on Sunday, 2 January 2022 when he died peacefully. Emanuel, otherwise known as Leli, Lelu, “iz-zieqa” and Bill, will always be remembered fondly by his loved ones, friends and acquaintances, for whom he exemplified the migrant ethic of honest hard work and putting family first.
“Yes there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last" (Luke 13:30).
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