Joseph "Joe" Capouya

Brother Les said this: Dad was razor sharp to the end. “The machinery is just worn out” he would often say in the last few months. He was ready to go. Joe had few regrets. An Italian kid who left his island home of Rodi for Africa in the early 1930’s to seek a new life. When world war two broke out in 1939 he volunteered for the British Army in Rhodesia versus interment as an enemy alien. (Almost all the Italians signed up, some never made it back) Because he was a machinist, his skill was determined as necessary for the war effort and he was sent to keep his beloved machines running on a gold mine. The man could fix or make almost anything mechanical. He met my late mother just after the war, proposed to her almost immediately and the rest is history. He spent the last few years of Mom’s life making sure she was taken care of as Parkinson’s disease slowly took its toll. He loved Mom, us kids (despite our efforts to be difficult), his nieces and nephews but most of all the grandchildren and great grandchildren. We couldn’t have asked for more.