Dear Friends,
It is with the deepest sadness that I write to you to say that my dear husband Col Michael Carrington passed away on 18 July 2018.
Michael had been fighting cancer for a number of years and, as you know, had insisted throughout in continuing to focus on the work of The Maria Nobrega Foundation, to ensure its enduring values and many projects were nurtured and maintained.
His final passing was very sudden, but thankfully his last days were so peaceful, and I am grateful to the doctors who helped him throughout.
He leaves a loving family and many dear friends who will miss him profoundly. He was a quite remarkable man who throughout his life showed a generosity of spirit and a joie de vivre that affected everyone he knew deeply.
To me he was the quintessential English gentleman whose love of his country, and of course his regiment, provided the enduring values that were central to his life. It was these values which he passionately applied to the founding of our Maria Nobrega Foundation and its focus on saving and nourishing the diverse cultures through the many national and international projects we continue to support.
If you have spent time with Michael you will understand why I highlight, out of all these many initiatives, his great love for the glorious restoration, rebuilding and reviving of the Saxon village of Archita in Transylvania, Romania. He was never happier than when he was there.
Michael’s funeral will take place at 2pm on Thursday 16 August at All Saints' Church, in Stock, Essex.
Finally as I sign off I think it is fitting to quote from the service of remembrance held at St Paul’s Cathedral for the 3,000 victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack, one of whom was Michael’s much loved son Jeremy. The reading was from the poem Little Gidding, part of The Four Quartets by T S Eliot, which ends:
“And all shall be well and
All manner of things shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one”.
Elizabeth Nobrega de Araujo Tsakiroglou
President of The Maria Nobrega Foundation
