Yesterday, the world lost a beautiful tenor voice.
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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.
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.
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.