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| Paul Churchill, tenor with the Stairwell Carollers |
Monday, June 25th, Paul Churchill was taken from us.
We are all still in shock and cannot believe we have lost him.
Paul was warm and intense, hilarious yet at times passionately serious, self-deprecating and generous. His sense of humour was irreverently fresh and funny.
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| Heading off to do Xmas caroling in the Byward Market |
This past Sunday, on the way to and from the choir's performance at Mondial in Laval, Paul kept his carpool mates entertained. Andrea says his stories of his children and how proud he was of them, interspersed with outrageous anecdotes and observations, was typically "Paul" -- in high spirits as usual.
The concert was fun -- short and sweet, with a wonderfully receptive audience. Paul clearly had a blast at his final concert with the Stairwell Carollers.
We will miss him more than I can express here. We all had our own friendships with him, each as different and varied as Paul's own personality. Thus, I can only speak of our relationship. It was one of winks and grins across the circle in rehearsals, double entendre remarks right before performances, and deep serious discussions about the educational system. He was great at diffusing tension with humour and amused us with his "bon mots" during rehearsal.
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| Paul being Paul -- note the hat |
His respect for our choir's director was complete, for he worked harder than anyone to improve his technique and follow Pierre's suggestions in rehearsal.
Paul's beautiful voice has been immortalized on our upcoming Sacred CD, Cantate Domine, which will be dedicated to his memory.
Details of the service for Paul
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| Portulaca from my garden |
A memorial service for Paul is planned for Tuesday July 3 at 10 AM to take place at Capital Memorial Gardens, 3700 Prince of Wales Drive. The Stairwell Carollers will be there to sing a tribute to Paul.
Legacy guestbook for Paul with the Ottawa Citizen
Stairwell Carollers memorial to Paul in this Blog
Mary Honeywell School Council memorial to Paul
Paul's Facebook page is also filling up with memories and tributes. I will not link to it, since it is a more personal memorial.
Mary Honeywell School Council memorial to Paul
Paul's Facebook page is also filling up with memories and tributes. I will not link to it, since it is a more personal memorial.
Google
Paul loved to sing, and we loved singing with him! A lovely man. I will miss him.
ReplyDeleteThank you Holly for this lovely tribute. I was only a spectator at your concerts, but also a coworker of Paul's and what you say of him, his vibrancy and intensity hightlighted by a wonderful sense of humour, as well as love and pride for his sons, were all qualities he also brought to his workplace. He will be sorely missed by so many people.
ReplyDeleteAnnik
I can't believe it. Paul will be sorely missed. His sense of humour, his incredible personality and kindness were just some of the qualities he brought to our group above and beyond the gift of his voice.
ReplyDeleteMy heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to his loved ones.
We are to be reminded to live life out loud (and what a great voice) everyday. Enjoy it the way he did - with love, compassion, humour and the very best of fundamental goodness. I will miss him.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone wants any of the photos of Paul, just right click on the image and save to your computer. If you want to look at all the photos in the slideshow, just click on it and it will bring you to the album in Picasa where you can download them to keep.
ReplyDeleteSuch a lovely tribute. He loved to sing!
ReplyDeleteMill Kearns McClintock (from Facebook)
Beautiful, Holly -- simply beautiful. I still can't believe it, and I know we're all still in shock. Thank you for such a fitting tribute.
ReplyDeleteMaggie
A beautiful tribute to a very sweet man.
ReplyDeleteThanks Holly for this lovely blog post.
Nicole