Larry Lamb admit he’s increasingly thinking about death
In a candid admission about his mortality, 77-year-old Gavin and Stacey actor Larry Lamb says he is increasingly thinking about death.
Larry Lamb is increasingly thinking about death.
The Gavin and Stacey actor, who turns 78 in October, spoke candidly to the Daily Mail about the sense of mortality that has grown with age.
He said: “The older I get the more I think about how much I love life, but the more I think about how much I love life, the more it makes me think about death.”
Now living most of the time in Normandy, Larry also explained he and a friend make an annual visit to tidy up graves in a cemetery – a ritual that has forced him to confront his own future.
He added: “It all started me thinking more about facing it realistically, because sadly, I don’t want to sign up for that bit at all, but in the end you are going to have to.”
Larry is the father of four children – George Lamb, 45, a television presenter, and daughters Vanessa, 56, Eloise, 26, and Eva, 22.
He described his close bond with them, explaining how even a missed Father’s Day turned into a meaningful celebration.
Larry added: “I couldn’t get home for Father’s Day this year, so my two baby daughters – both in their twenties – insisted that we have a belated celebration the next Sunday.
“Marking Mother’s and Father’s Day is very important for them, because the older I get, of course the more important it is for me, and they always give me a meaningful, little gift that they chose between them.
“It just becomes more and more obvious to me that it’s an opportunity for them to write me a card or a letter and to tell me exactly how much they love me, and why.
“So I sat there basking in their love, in the sunshine and just realising how lucky I was, and what makes me, and drives me to keep doing whatever I can, to stay alive for as long as I can to give them a dad for as long as I can.
“Somewhere out there – I see it now and again, flickering down the end of its kind of long, nicely illustrated tunnel there’s a sign, and it says, ‘Way Out,’ and I know that’s the way I’m going.”
Larry also said he began writing poems about death with a friend to cope with his feelings, explaining: “It really makes it much easier for me to deal with, because I was always very frightened of it, and it was full of mystery. I didn’t really know – I've not been encumbered with any kind of religion at all. It’s kind of pick it up as you go along.”
