I guess the packed church at his funeral Mass said it all, testimony to how well liked Joe Mercieca was.

We were close friends in our days in The Times newsroom in the 1960s and 1970s, when we were reporters there, after which he left to take up the post of Information Officer at the American Embassy. But gradually we went our separate ways, and met only rarely. He was always courteous, whatever the situation. He was always cool and no matter how tight it was for time, he was never in a hurry.

In our days, newsroom staff at The Times did not have company transport; we used the buses. We earned peanuts and worked long hours, with no overtime earnings, even if we had to work during our midday break. We were proud of our work, standards were high and we selflessly tried to rise above them, though the company did not reward us for our efforts. It was rare for us to carry our name with a story; we signed our work impersonally “By A Staff Reporter” or “By a Staff Reporter”. No one of us ever questioned that; maybe we were too quiescent. I never got to know who decided on the “A” or the “a” – why the capital was used with some stories, but not with others. I suppose there was no meaning to it.

Our company management was certainly strict. The late Capt. J. Agius, I think he was the managing director, would be by the newsroom door every morning there was some mistake, brandishing the paper and demanding an explanation of the first staff member who came in. So were the editors – the late Tom Hedley was the finest – and they would let us know of any shortcoming we may have had in a story, even if a word was just mis-spelt. Today, many mistakes carry on into the printing. “Where” for “were”, or the other way round, for instance. Repeatedly in the same story, not as an example of a moment of distraction. Or evoke instead of invoke, showing a pitiful weakness in the language.

Joe Mercieca had one thing he did not share with the rest of us in the newsroom – a keenness to go and get the story even as we were on the point of going off for the day. In the newsroom we all admired him for it, it was so selfishly convenient for us – we usually would leave roughly at about 6.30pm, and there were times when the newsroom would get a call at about the time we were free to go home, to inform us about some serious traffic accident, at Mqabba or wherever. Joe never waited for us to decide between ourselves on who would do the coverage, though it was the end of the working day – he always insisted on going out to the scene himself, using his personal transport.

I salute you Joe, you were a fine example to emulate.

Roger Mifsud

Rabat