Javier – it has been a great privilege for Maggie and I to have been part of your life with Corry, we met in Swaziland and have enjoyed all of the times we spent together particularly on biking trips and especially our trip to Cape Town and it is a very sad day for us that you are no longer with us. When you get up there, just buy yourself a nice BMW LT and wait for me, we’ll go riding together singing ‘Valencia’ which we did so well together!!

JOHN & MAGGIE (Riding Buddies) – Zambia

JAVIER’S SPANISH COMPADRE PACO – in Madrid

JAVIER’S SPANISH COMPADRE PACO – in MadridIt doesn’t matter how I met Javier. The important thing is that I met him. Not everybody is so lucky. We were immediately connected. It wasn’t hard: finding a good man, always with a smile and so generous makes it easy to get close and trust him.The first time we spent a few days together working, but he already invited me to a motorbike trip in South Africa a few months later: Don’t say it twice, because I’ll accept the invitation!He said it twice. I accepted.

He lend me a motorcycle and with Corry, his wife, and Jackelyne, his daughter, we went over beautiful and wild routes, enduring heat, sometimes cold, rain… and laughing while we would stop and talk about it. We shared the soul of what a good bike trip is, and we established our friendship, a mature friendship, not a late one, sober, noble, with no expectations and no demands, a friendship that only offers and accepts sincerity in the exchange of experiences, points of view, life lessons… always splashed with Javier’s irony and his sense of humor…

Last time I was with him I was with my partner, Marta. They barely knew each other, but she immediately understood the reason of our friendship: it only took a short while to feel like you had known Javier all your life! After-dinner conversations would be extended while we would listen to him going through the pages of his youth, with a glass of wine in his hand. He would hold our attention putting a rascal face when he referred to a first teenager girlfriend, and we would all end up laughing out loud with the conclusion of the story… He knew how to narrate anything in an interesting and captivating manner.

Once he had retired and we would talk, he would ask me about the politics of this country, he would laugh with the jokes I would tell him, and he would always surprise me with the plans he had in mind, plans that denoted remarkable vigour and energy, plans in which the protagonist was always Corry, his wife, with whom he was and had always been in love with.

My friend, we are missing you very much.

JAVIER’S BROTHER JUAN – Port Elizabeth

Cuando yo era joven (12 anos) me acuerdo mucho de MI hermano Javier (Chaveli) siempre lo veia como un hermanomayor y yo me decia es joven elegante y se hacia mucho detalle a su presentacion, teniendo una Grande imaginacion para el futuro. Mis hijas Jasmin y Jayde se acuerdan del tio Javier por el amor que tenia de Las motocicletas B M W en Las cuales el les dio muchas bueltas.

When I was a young boy of about 12 Years Old I remember very vividly looking at my older brother Javier who we nicknamed Chaveli and thinking to myself that he was always so immaculately dressed. I always admired the wonderful long term vision that he had for his life and his accomplishments. My daughters Jasmin and Jayde always referred to him as their Uncle with a BMW motor bike who took them for rides along the beachfront. We are so saddened that he has passed on, and our thoughts are with Corry, Eva, Silvia, Jose and Grandchildren.

JAVIER‘S SISTER ROSA - Valencia

JAVIER‘S SISTER ROSA - Valencia

I remember when we were teenagers during the summer there was an open air cinema to which all our friends used to go. Our parents didn't allow Javier or myself to go, so Javier being more adventurous than me used to escape through a little window and return later in the same way.

Javier loved life and was passionate about music and when we were together with all our friends he played the accordion to which we sang and danced having a lovely time.

He was a good brother and I have many happy memories of him. Now he is walking through paths of light and he is telling please don't cry for me if you love me. Javier we love you.

Rosa

JAVIER’S BROTHER VICENTE – London

JAVIER’S BROTHER PEDRO –Valencia

JAVIER’S BROTHER VICENTE – London

Javier was born in Valencia in 1940 , one of 7 children. Spain was obviously trying to recover from the civil war and repopulate its country.

From a very early age he was very interested in music, learning to play the piano and accordion. As he grew older his passion became motor bikes and photography.

Javier always cared a lot about his brothers and sister and I remember he once took me camping to Benidorm although I was six years younger than him.

I remember Javier with much love and am so pleased to have spent a happy holiday with him and Corry last November.

One more anecdote we remember was Javier coming to see us in England when he was in his early thirties and arriving on a large motor bike dressed in leathers with a small knapsack on his back. He looked like an American film star and greatly impressed our children!

JAVIER’S BROTHER PEPE – Spain

Dear Corry, this morning I have learnt about Javier passing on and I want to tell you how sorry I am and for you to know how much I loved him - more than he could ever imagine. I accompany you in your pain and your sentiments and the one thing he left behind is our wonderful memories of his life.A very big kiss. Your brother Pepe

MEMORIES FROM JAVIER’S SON JOSE – Mexico

Francisco Javier MarsalJavier aka Toro Loco Con Nariz de Aguila was my father

He was a good manHe definitely lived an interesting life with many stories and adventures to tell

At the start of his Golden Years he met Corry, which made these years shine brighterJavier and I for a period liked to ride bikes and go on adventures

As a father / son team we had many good memoriesThe Sani Pass in Lesotho, trips to Sun City, many Trips from Joburg to Cape Town, and so many

breakfasts runs

This adventures brought us together and we shared something we both loved.Of course I was the better rider

We would also share our adventures with family and take them on our rides. Maria, Sylvia, Corry, Dean, Jacquelyn and so many others joined in our trips and memories.

Riding a bike is a bit like life, you need to keep looking where you are going at all times, but you always know that there is somebody behind you to keep you company and be there for you

should you need them. Today, Javier decided to keep on riding and he will be missed and remembered.

JAVIER’S SON JOSE – Mexico

MEMORIES FROM JAVIER’S DAUGHTHER EVA

– Canary Islands

JAVIER’S DAUGTER EVA – Canary IslandsJust wish I could have had a moment with him to kiss him goodbye...I just loved him so much. Thanks to him I'm in this world. Thanks to him a whole new world and life opened up to me in South Africa. I could write a whole book about the first time he spoke to me about South Africa! I was only 9, and still remember listening to his fabulous full of fantasy stories about South Africa which made my mind fly to that Wonder land, which a year and a half later, I had the honour to discover...

At the age of eleven, I decided to live with him in this land full of contrasts, South Africa. One of the best decisions I've ever taken in life. Many thoughts come to my head of that first period in South Africa:

The excursions all over the Cape in our yellow VW Combi, also when he took me out to eat my first hamburger. I'd never been to a fast food restaurant and remember that night with joy as if it were yesterday...the dogs, the farm in Worcester. He knew nothing about farming, but there he was running a farm. My days at Worcester Girls Primary... Didn't understand a word of English but I loved it there! Difficult moments for us then, but somehow we managed to get along fine.

I look at myself in the mirror and a bit of him always comes up. In fact, there's a lot of him in me, and that will stay with me forever. He always encouraged me to go further, and I did.

Cont…

JAVIER’S DAUGTER EVA – Canary IslandsThink about him and a sad smile appears on my face, specially during these days... His strong point was definitely the capacity to start right from the bottom, a new life, a new business adventure... Whatever, wherever, and made it work. With enthusiasm, perseverance and the right "ingredients" he made it work. In that, I'm quite similar to him, no matter where life has taken us, we've always made it Home. And he, like I, had the ability to feel that he belonged.

I remember our long chats about anything really... All these past years when we went on holiday to visit, Papá and I enjoyed our late night chats with a glass of wine, and as always, when he got really tired, he would always end the evening with these same words... "Chas! Mi madre, quétarde! (Wow, it's so late...). I smile just thinking about our dad-daughter moments... So fantastic, we would talk for hours and hours...

Just loved the way you loved each other, Corry. Just loved the way you took him in your life, and brought out the best in him, of him.

There is just so much, so many moments captured in my head that I could carry on and on...

He was Papá, and I his Evoncia la mas favoncia (sorry no translation for that). That's how he called me from when I was little, and that's how it'll remain in me always...Papá, a Spaniard with a South African soul. Love you Papá

MEMORIES FROM JAVIER’S STEP-SON DEAN – Canada

Our memories of Javier sitting with his feet in the pool or in his chair on the veranda at the Cabin always with a glass of red wine will be forever with us. The paella’s and many dinners we enjoyed together were good times and special family moments we treasured. Kelsy and Luc enjoyed many a fun time riding his quad bike and Annelize was always given the special duty of doing his ‘fingers’ as he called his toes. But special to her was the fact that he imparted his ‘very secret’ paella recipe with her.

Most of all he made my mother very happy and provided her with a wonderful life style and treated her the way a wife should be treated.

JAVIER’S STEP-SON DEAN IN Canada

MEMORIES FROM JAVIER’S STEP-DAUGHTHER JACQUELINE – Durban

JAVIER’S STEP-DAUGHTER JACQUELINE

My memories of Javier will be of the late afternoons after his siesta. If it was summer he would sit on the side of the pool with his feet in the water. If it was winter he would sit in the sun lounge. He would always have a glass of wine and he would stare out at the view for what seemed like hours. I would wonder if he was in his "nothing box'' or if he was contemplating his life, family and finances. I suspect that most often it was the latter because he was always making plans and always in the minutest detail.

Javier and I shared an interest in investment and financial security, but he was more knowledgable than I. His legacy to me is having helped me to grow my pennies to something more substantial than if I had done it on my own.

Javier's funny use of English will also linger with me. I will always think of parking bays for the disabled as the 'Mutilated parking', and that he wore a hearing aid because he was 'theft' in his ear.

Finally, I always appreciated the love and respect he showed Mom and all he did to take care of her and provide for her. For this we are very grateful.

JAVIER’S SON-IN-LAW GAVIN CHAPMAN –Durban

Javier’s Son-in-law Gavin ChapmanMy story about JavierWhen first meeting Javier, I was introduced as Dr Gavin Chapman from Durban. Javier immediately associated everyone coming from Durban as being from the Naidoo family and so I was renamed Dr Naidoo from that time on.On one occasion, Javier sent a letter to our home which is in a townhouse complex and addressed the letter to Dr Naidoo (Unit 4). The gardener who allocates the mail into the complex mailboxes, placed it into the box of the real Mr Naidoo who resides in (Unit 8). The real Mr Naidoo realised that it was not for him and then placed it into the box of Unit 4 for “Javier’s Mr Naidoo”. This was Javier’s pet-name for me – and naturally Jackie was also renamed as Mrs Naidoo from Durban. The other story was of Javier coming from Karkloof to Durban on his own on a Friday afternoon – to collect Paco and Marta at the airport. Upon arriving he complained about having had an upset stomach the day before. At lunch time both he and myself were hungry so I offered to buy him an Indian special bunny-chow. This is a quarter loaf of bread, hollowed-out and filled with curry and then has the hollowed out bread placed on top of the curry. I chose the beans curry and he chose the mutton curry. He could not finish the bunny-chow and then we went off to collect Paco at the airport.During the Saturday night, the mutton curry caused more problems than he had hoped for, and so on the Sunday, Javier had to be hospitalised to rehydrate his system. This was a serious miscalculation of the spicy bunny-chow taken on an upset stomach. The bunny-chow was always treated with great respect from that day onwards.

He is the best friend, fan, supporter, helper, and love a wife could ever desire

Tribute from Corry

Javier...my unique one-of-a-kind man.His pet names for me were either MAMA or CORINDIA! Mama was his endearing term and Corindia was when he was in a playful, joking mode.He wanted to give me the world and every time I asked how much the world cost, his stock answer would be... ‘’don’t worry about it, it’s in the budget!’’ How he loved budgets.He also loved a challenge especially negotiating, be it for a car, a bike, a property or equipment for his favourite business venture – kept his brain in good working order was what he would say. Got to keep the cogs turning or they will start to rust.His Span-English was always a source of amusement as his direct translations from Spanish to English were not always spot on and at times led to raised eyebrows. In fact some of the words did not exist in any language and so his contribution to the New South African English Dictionary can only be equalled by our current news readers.

Tribute from Corry - cont…He was planning to send me to Spain in October for a year, in fact 90% of all the paperwork is already completed, because he said, ‘’I want the assurance that if anything happens to me you will have options. With permanent Spanish residence you will have more travel advantages when you want to visit the children.’’ Unfortunately, time ran out for him but I will forever be grateful that I was here with him when he needed me the most and not in Spain.

I will miss the way he would open the windows in the morning and say, ‘’Good morning world, what do you have for me today!’’ Always positive, always adventurous, always on the look-out for a challenge... he just loved life.

I will miss all these things about him but, most of all, I will miss those everyday moments when he would just grab me and say, “Corindia, I love you, I love you, I love you’’... I loved that he was never shy to express his feelings. Another every day chirp would be, “Mama, what’s for supper?” and his all time favourite, ‘’Be happy… we must always be happy!’’ We were happy.

Then my favourite - before he switched the bedside lights off at night, he’d give me a good night kiss and say, ’’All’s well Mama, sleep with the angels’’ - and so my love I say, ‘’All’s well Papa, sing with the angels’’.