Tony Snow (1955-2008)

I never knew him personally, nor had I met him in person at all. He inhabited a world very different from mine, as different as two possible worlds could be.

But I confess there was an affinity or profound connection with him, close enough for my soul to feel deep grief in learning of his passing, and to automatically coat my eyes with a thin film of earnest tears watching honest tributes of him coming from other famous personalities in media and politics.

For indeed I knew him only from radio and TV. Nostalgic mental images of him start a slow pious procession in my affected mind, after being jolted by a curt headline on the Internet announcing his loss to the cancer that he was suffering from.

A very gentle voice unchanged and unfazed regardless of any hot topic he was dealing with whether on radio and TV. A telegenic presence that commanded respect, adulation, and credibility to any thorny issue that he was trying to unravel or communicate to his audience. Well-chiseled and squared facial features, held upright and admirably together by lanky but broad shoulders and a physically-commanding body.

There was not much anything one heard or saw of him that one could not like.

Good-bye and God-speed, Tony. God in his mercy and justice has now taken the task of showering His Divine Providence in loving care of the surviving rest of your beloved family.

It is only but fair, if only in just recompense for a life well-lived.