Helen Hill

Friends of Helen’s have set up a memorial website with information: helenhill.ckdu.ca

Dear friends,

Paul and Helen’s family have been comforted by the unbelievable amounts of love and admiration for Helen from all corners of the globe. Thank you all.

The family is managing thanks to all the memories of Helen that people are sharing with them and for the sake of that playful, sweet-natured little boy Francis Pop.

Helen sent a postcard a day. She loved that old-fashioned form of correspondence. I hope you can all send postcards to Paul and Helen’s family as they continue to struggle through this. And you can send postcards to Francis Pop forever. This is still the best address…

Kevin and Becky Lewis
1432 Medway Road
Columbia, SC 29205

Paul will be moving to Vancouver at the end of this month. We’ll post an address for him on the Helenhill.org website.

Paul Ryan has set up a college savings account for Francis Pop. Please see below for instructions on how to help it grow.

A 529 college account has been set up with 2500 dollars in the name of Francis Pop Gailunus. If anyone wants to contibute, they need to make a check out to “Schwab 529” putting account number 695-600-002-208 in the memo section of the checks. Send to to Charles Schwab and Co., PO Box 3368, Greenwood Vilage, Colorado 80155-9972. Checks must be at least 50 dollars. This money will grow tax free.

more info on the tributes page

please see the news about making a memorial zine for Helen.

Please let it be known that a memorial tree sculpture is being created for Helen -and the community’s loss of Paul and Francis as well. People are encouraged to make a weather-resistant ornament “leaf” to hang on a branch. Volunteers are needed from different cities to gather up leaves and send in a bulk mailing to an address that will be determined after the funeral, etc. in So. Carolina. Please email Nikki Page at nikkipage@gmail.com to discuss/volunteer…see www.nolanik.blogspot.com for basic sketch for the tree, though the details of the physics pf the scultpure are still being worked out so the design could morph.

The tree will be placed in public during a decoration party as soon as ornaments are gathered and the basic structure is created. Thank you to “Klayto” for collaborating on creating the tree!!!

Thank you for posting everything. Lookig forward to seeing people I have no idea I know through blogs!

more information on the tributes page

I know some of you are very, very close friends and I’m sorry we can’t get you all in touch with Paul. And with everything so crazy I may even forget to pass on messages. So please send a card if you can’t come to Columbia. He’s going to really need his friends and your thoughts over the next months and years.

The website Cristin set up at Helenhill.org is now the best place for information.

ADDRESS CHANGE! the Dunbar Funeral Home is on 3926 Devine St. Columbia, SC 29205 phone: 803-771-7990, not on the Gervais street address I wrote earlier. The visitation will be 7-9 on Tuesday. Bring a photo or picture or piece of art by or for Helen to put up on a board.

FILM SCREENING! There will be a screening of Helen’s films at the Nickelodeon Theater in columbia from 11 am to noon and then again from noon to 1pm on Wednesday. I suggest you try to go to the first one and wait for the second if it’s too crowded.

Nickelodeon website
937 Main St. map

Also Cory, Paul’s brother-in-law, is making a slide show for Francis of his family You can send him photos of Helen or anything to… cory.amy [at] gmail [dot] com

If you are a musician or performer who would like to perform one of Paul’s songs to her or one of the songs Helen wrote at the funeral, call me as soon as possible.

Will and Janet will help people find a place to stay. Their number is (803) 779-9903. We should be able to get everyone at least a floor to crash on.

Condolence notes, letters and flowers are appreciated. I think the best thing to write is happy memories of Helen. We want to remember everything we can about her. And we want to have material for Francis Pop to look at someday. She was such a complex, fascinating person.

Send them to:
Becky Lewis (Helen’s mom)
1432 Medway Road
Columbia, SC 29205
(803) 343-2437

This is the link for donating to Doctors without Borders in the memory of Helen Hill. People need to put her name in the appropriate boxes and the family will see the gifts.
You can also call 888-392-0392.

There will probably be other charities and such set up in Helen’s memory over the next few weeks. If you have thoughts or want to help with this, feel free to contact me or Helen’s sister-in-law, Brett at bretthill100 [at] yahoo [dot] com

Feel free to e-mail or call my cell phone at (323) 708-3726. Try calling me again if I don’t get back to you on something.
Please pass this e-mail along. I’m having trouble including all the e-mail addresses I’ve been getting.

So much love,
Elijah

Please note, I had the wrong address for the funeral home earlier. I have just corrected it. the proper address is: 3926 Devine St. Columbia, SC 29205 phone: 803-771-7990. Here is a link to a map

sorry if this caused any confusion.

• New York Times
• The State (South Carolina)
• CTV
• AWN
• Globe and Mail
• KATC
• Shreveport Times
• Nola Nik
• b.rox
• relative geography
• boingboing
• Phil Nugent