Lou Antonelli
Universally Loved
Last Thursday night, I announced the death of Lou Antonelli, author and friend. I didn’t say much, because it’s hard to write through tears. It really is.
The universal response to the passing of Lou Antonelli has been “Oh no. Not Lou.”
Not Lou.
That sums it up.
I first encountered Lou during one of the Puppy fracas—it may even have been Sad Puppies 3, when I first became aware of Sad Puppies, and “Maybe I should read these Larry Correia books.” (It’s why I miss Sad Puppies. I got to meet people.)
I can honestly say that Lou was a good man. He was always friendly. He would talk with anyone about anything.
I may have spent 72 hours with him in person, and each one was a joy.
During LibertyCon 2016 (my first) I came down with a case of shingles. Lou corrected me, “It looked more like you had a case of roof tiles.”
It’s been interesting watching the reactions even from people who have vocally hated Lou in the past. Or were disdainful of him in public. Even they didn’t have a bad word to say about him.
Because if we’re being truthful, there really wasn’t anything bad to say.
If I dropped dead tomorrow, I suspect no one would notice for months except for a handful of people. If I received a fraction of the response that Lou has, I’d drop dead a second time in shock.
Lou dealt with the insanities of fandom in a very simple way: he didn’t let it get to him. In fact, he just let it wash over him. Then he chuckled and went back to his real life. Because the internet is not a real place, and he treated it accordingly.
But at the end of the day, there is only one real response to the death of Lou Antonelli.
No. Not Lou.
We don’t have enough of the good ones.
The service for Lou Antonelli will be Friday Oct 15 at First Baptist Church in Clarksville Texas at 1 pm for visitation and 2 pm for the memorial service.
Thank you for sharing this.
As I recall, my reaction was somewhat more strongly worded and nowhere near PG-13. But yes, "Not, Lou" sums up how all of us felt when we got the news.