Though I have been writing for TAS online for several years now, I found out about Lawrence Henry’s death the same way I discovered him, which was as a reader.
How happy I was each week to bring up the Spectator website and see that Lawrence Henry column ready to be savored. Occasionally, I felt so strongly about the value of something he had written, I put my two cents in to reader mail so Wlady could post it. I could have just emailed Larry (which I often did), but I wanted him to see the praise on the site.
In the main tribute to him, some of the writers noted how Larry wrote about the everyday things. He joked with me that he held the “Regular Guy’s Chair” at AmSpec. Reflections on regular life? Yes. Regular level of talent? No.
Larry died early, but he lived a broad and full life. Good times, bad times, joy, and tragedy. He knew how to make sense of it all.
Like Larry, I have a hope about eternity. I pray that Larry, like the brothers and sisters of the New Testament, has simply fallen asleep in the Lord and that his next moments are far greater than even a writer like he could imagine.