Late last night, my husband Philip came out of his study and said:

"I don't know how true this is, but they are reporting on Facebook that Larry Smith has died."

I have to confess. I didn't check Facebook. I couldn't. This was news for which I was totally unprepared, and for which I was absolutely unaccepting. Larry? So I went to bed, pretending that there was some mistake. Or that, as Philip said, as with the wave of sadness that took over Facebook last month regarding the death of a Mother Pratt, it was another Larry Smith.

But it wasn't.

Larry Smith

As of Monday, August 28, 2017

LARRY Smith, 67, well known columnist, died suddenly at his High Vista home on Sunday of complications from heart failure.

From 2004 he wrote the weekly column, “Tough Call,” in The Tribune.

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Larry Andrew Smith was born in Nassau in 1950 to Roy and Barbara Smith. He attended Queen’s College before attending the University of Miami on a government scholarship to study political science and journalism. He worked for the Bahamas News Bureau before starting Media Enterprises in 1984.

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He was married to Joanne Smith, daughter of Mr Justice van Sertima, and they have two daughters, Aliya Carey and Casey Smith.

via Columnist Larry Smith dies age 67 | The Tribune

There are no words left. Others have already written their own tributes. Mine will take some time. But what I do know is that we, The Bahamas, will feel this loss. We don't do investigative journalism all that much around here. But Larry? Larry was the real thing.

You don't believe me? Check this out.

Bahama Pundit

It's the best website in Nassau, thanks to Larry. Just read the last post, and you'll see what I mean. Then go back and read the whole archives.

Then, maybe then, you will begin to comprehend the magnitude of this loss to our nation.