‘Back out of all this now too much for us….’

The trouble with all of this—this grief and this acquiescence to its too-sudden reality--is that Antoine de Lassence was simply an absolute treasure to know, and that nothing (and least of all, words like these), nothing can really help to capture or restore that lustre he brought to our lives.

At this seemingly unbearable moment, words only suffice as feeble tokens of both our brokenness in that loss, as well as our wonderment in the beauty that Antoine really brought to life, to the lives of those who knew him--passionate, charming, engaging, magnanimous, bemused and enigmatic at times. He always seemed to relish experience upon experience, further making this loss so unbearably arresting, this grief so bitter.

And so I must at this moment, stand with family and community friends and force out these thin, paltry words in this most inadequate fashion—to at least thank God—of all creation and every mercy—for Antoine, for the joy it is to have known him and his dear family in Paris—our own family loved him so very much. There have been so many tears—truly our only comfort is that he is enfolded in the arms of his loving God. We miss him terribly—we will all love him forever, now and when we're together again.


Antoine, Matt Lyon, Tra Tran