Former Leader of the Opposition Honourable Ralph T. O’Neal OBE has fondly described the late businessman Ali Mohamad Tarabay as a fine gentleman and someone who was always humble and generous. Photo: VINO

Ali Mohamad Tarabay, one of the first Middle Eastern persons to settle in the Virgin Islands, passed away August 7, 2015 following a bout of illness. Photo: Facebook

He was speaking on Sunday August 9, 2015 at a memorial service in honour of the Lebanese-born Virgin Islands resident who passed away on August 7, 2015 following a bout of illness.

“It is a difficult situation to speak about my dear friend. I can’t remember how we met but we met and we continued to meet. I used to call him the daddy of all the Muslims who were here,” Honourable O’Neal said.

“I found this gentleman a fine gentleman, humble, meek, mild, generous…always willing to help. He was integrated into the community. He always thought about people and made sure that they were alright,” he said.

He recalled one time when Tarabay came to see him and was perplexed as something was bothering him.

“Despite the fact that I knew him for some time, when I was Minister for Social Affairs [I was told] that Mr Ali was there to see me. But it wasn’t the Mr Ali I knew…you could see from his face that there was a problem,” recounted Hon O’Neal.

He said that following the conversation with the gentleman, he made a suggestion as to how the difficulty that Mr Ali had could be dealt with.

Checking in on him some three weeks later, Mr Ali Tarabay greeted him with a hug and said that he did what was suggested and it worked out. According to Hon O’Neal, this made the friendship between the two men even stronger.

The uniform

Hon O’Neal recalled that in 2000, he was on the hunt for a suit and it was suggested that he go to Mr Tarabay’s store.

“He said come with me…I have some suits. He picked out this one that I have on now. He called it the uniform….and every time I put it on I think of Mr Ali,” said Hon O’Neal. “Because he told me it is a good suit and it would last long and it is 15 years now,” he said.

Stricken at news of passing

According to Hon O’Neal, when he got the news that Mr Tarabay had passed, he was “stricken” for the rest of the day and could not work.

“He did have the Virgin Islands at heart and it was something definitely good about the man. It wasn’t pretending. He loved the people and he loved the place and we are going to miss him,” he said.

“We are going to miss him. We thank him for what he has done for this place and we hope that he rests in peace,” said Hon O’Neal.