Last we spoke, you told me about your intention to throw your hat in the ring for the post of Secretary General of the Nationalist Party. As I promised you my support, I couldn't feel happier - both for you and your prospects to continue growing within the structures of the party, but most importantly for the party itself and by extension the country.

A great deal has already been said about you in the past days since we were all shocked by your parting. All I will add is that you will dearly be missed. I will miss you dearly.

Your contribution to politics in various posts and levels was a breath of fresh air that energised those around you to work and achieve results together. That is why I was very excited to support your bid for Secretary General. We had just worked so closely in the run up to the European Parliament and Local Council elections last June. Your positive energy contributed directly, I believe, towards the fresh attitude we portrayed together as a party. Your character and can-do attitude was felt across the campaign, and the encouraging results we obtained together, were in no small part your doing. I am convinced you would have brought your same brand of positivity to the role of Secretary General.

Your positive energy resonated around you. Your radiant smile filled the room, as you always had a friendly word or a comforting comment for everyone. 'X'għandna Capo!' you would always say, instantly putting anyone at ease.

That perhaps was your most disarming attribute with which you managed to motivate and energise the various teams at Media.Link, the party's media arm. In fact, under your leadership as Chief of Operations, our different media outlets felt rejuvenated as they obtained a fresh outlook. The results are crystal clear for everyone to witness.

Beyond management, you genuinely were a positive person. Whenever anyone came up to you with a problem or a challenge, even if you didn't have the solution in your back pocket, you always had the time to listen and exchange ideas. That is something that everyone loved and admired in you - something which is very rare nowadays.

You continued to contribute to our party at a time when it wasn't attractive to do so. You stuck in the trenches through thick and thin, when, I am convinced, given your talents, you could have obtained way greater personal benefit had you ventured away. But you were a true party man, who believed in the values of the Nationalist Party, as a force for good.

You truly were a political animal. For you, as you said so many times, both publicly as well as informally, politics is a way of improving people's lives, and you truly believed that.

I will miss our chats, both strategic and serious, but also informal and light-hearted. I will miss working with you on position papers for the party, press conferences and events, and all the great work you shined so brightly in.

I will miss simply having you around. There is so much more I can add here, but perhaps certain things are better kept personal. The best cherished moments will remain between us.

Your talents, your generosity, your good will, will survive you, way beyond your Earthly life, in every person you touched in your life.

Fly high my friend, the world is a duller place without you.

Darren

Dr Darren Carabott is the Opposition's Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, Security and Reforms, and President of the Public Accounts Committee.