Actor Damian Lewis wrote a heartbreaking tribute to his late wife Helen McCrory, writing that she was “a meteorite in our lives.”
The “Billions” star remembered McCrory, who died of cancer on Friday at the age of 52, both as a “brilliant” actress and as a kind and generous person.
“I have never known anyone to spread happiness so consciously,” Lewis wrote in the Sunday Times in Britain.
“Even when she died in the last days, when she spoke to our wonderful caregivers, she repeatedly said, ‘Thank you very much’ in her half-delirious condition.”
The couple met in 2003, when they both played a play at the Almeida Theater in London and got married four years later. They shared two children, 14-year-old Manon and 13-year-old Gulliver.
McCrory, who was known for her roles in “Harry Potter” and the BBC show “Peaky Blinders,” was “extremely proud” to be an actress and artist, her husband wrote.
But “Helen was an even more brilliant person than she was an actress.”
“He was a person, of course … But he also lived by the principle of kindness and generosity. That you put these things in the world to make them better, to make them
people feel better, ”Lewis wrote.
“She always asked people how they were, she was always interested, she made every person she met feel special, as if she were the only person in the room. She gave them all her attention. It made them always laugh, “he continued. “There were a few funnier people, she was damn funny.”
Lewis, 50, recalled how a nurse at Royal Marsden Hospital in London told him that caregivers were looking forward to McCrory’s visits “because it made their day better. Asked how they are, they took care of their life at home, they spread joy, they made them laugh ”.
“Helen would say, ‘Well, their job is a lot harder than mine.’ And she was dying. “
Even in her illness, McCrory was “completely heroic,” Lewis said.
“Funny, of course generous, brave, unpleasant, constantly reminding everyone how lucky we were, how blessed we are.”
“I have never known anyone capable of enjoying life so much,” he wrote. “Her ability to be in the present and to enjoy the moment was inspiring. She wasn’t even interested in the navel. No real interest in self-reflection; he believed in looking out, not in. That is why he managed to turn his light so strongly on others. ”
While she left her children too early, they were “ready for life,” Lewis said.
“They have in them the fearlessness, the spirit, the curiosity, the talent and the beauty of their mother. She urged us to be brave and not be afraid. “
Lewis closed his tribute by describing how much he misses his wife, writing that “he has shone brighter in recent months than you would imagine that even the brightest star could shine.”
“And in life we had to get up to meet her,” he wrote. “But her greatest and most refined act of courage and generosity was to” normalize “her death. She showed no fear, no bitterness, no self-pity, but only armed us with the courage to continue and insisted that no one be sad, because she is happy. ”
“I’m amazed at her,” Lewis added. “It was a meteorite in our lives.”