Comments on: Honouring Helen Hill

By: Memorial « Wing & Fly

Memorial « Wing & Fly — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:26:54 +0000

[...] skip the news media and visit the small memorial to Helen Canadian gent Jim Munroe’s posted here, which details the couple’s wonderful personalities and commitment to [...]

By: Ross

Ross — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 06:27:58 +0000

Jim, thanks for posting this, and for introducing me to Paul and Helen that Halloween. It’s tough to even think about something like this happening to such amazing, sweet people, and it’s tougher not to completely lose faith in humanity over it.

By: Bert’s Blog » Blog Archive » Helen Hill, RIP

Bert’s Blog » Blog Archive » Helen Hill, RIP — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 21:02:27 +0000

[...] You may have read about the couple, a doctor and an artist, who were shot in New Orleans last week. The artist, Helen Hill, was killed. Jim Munroe knew them, and has posted his memories of them and thoughts about them here, including this beatiful moment from a couple of Hallowe’ens ago… The last time I visited it was around Hallowe’en, and they explained to me that some of the kids were so poor they trick or treated without a costume. So they’d bought plastic masquerade masks as well as candy. “And what are you, young man?” I remember Paul asking one kid who didn’t have a costume. The kid mumbled that he was just a boy. Paul handed him a mask and said, “Well, now you’re Super Just-A-Boy!” The kid put it on and went away happy. [...]

By: jim

jim — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 01:42:10 +0000

Thanks for the clarification, Anita, and I’m glad you liked the stories.

By: Anita Yesho

Anita Yesho — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 21:42:28 +0000

That’s for sharing your stories and films. I love the story of Paul giving out Halloween masks.
I am a friend of Helen & Paul who has lived in New Orleans for 16 years. I just want to clarify that Helen & Paul were NOT the only white people in their neighborhood by any means. Their Mid-City (pre-Katrina) neighbhorhood was mixed, and their apartment on N. Rampart Street, where Helen was killed, was in the Marigny, a gentrified, mixed, famously gay-friendly neighborhood that saw soaring housing prices and insane real estate speculation even before Hurricane Katrina made it nearly impossible to find affordable housing in New Orleans. I think it’s fair to say Helen & Paul didn’t stand out as “white” people in their neighborhood–however, they were the only people seen walking their pig on a regular basis and lots of New Orleanians knew them on sight because of that. When I was dropping off moving boxes at the N. Rampart Street house early the other morning, 2 strangers driving by stopped their cars and got out to talk to me about their sorrow over Helen’s death. One of them was a neighbor who only knew them from seeing Helen & Paul & Francis walking in the neighborhood with Rosie. That neighbor told me she has decided to move away from the US because of Helen’s murder.

By: slutsky

slutsky — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 14:21:29 +0000

what a sad story… thanks for that