Sarah’s mom left a lovely comment earlier this evening in which she thanked everyone for “the kindness and the comfort your comments have given to” the family. Here’s a picture of Sarah (at right) with her mom and her five siblings:
I’ve created a permanent memorial for Sarah at www.brendanloy.com/sarah, where I am consolidating and centralizing all the links to photos, sound clips, blog posts, comments and other materials paying tribute to Gimpi (or “Scout,” as she was known more widely and recently). The memorial is a work-in-progress, and if you have anything you’d like to contribute to it, please by all means e-mail me.
Speaking of tributes, Thursday’s musical tribute by the NHS choir alums was really remarkable. It was successful beyond anything I could possibly have imagined when I had my initial brainstorm that we should get some alums together and sing “A Welsh Lullaby” in Sarah’s honor. I remember wondering if we’d be able to cobble together enough people to have at least two singers for each part! Well, as it turns out, we had (I believe) 29 people in all — almost twice the size of a normal chamber choir — ranging in age from the Class of 1998 through the Class of 2008. That’s a decade’s worth of NHS students who were sufficiently touched by Sarah’s life that they wanted to sing her a final farewell. Remarkable. Here’s a group picture of most of us (though several had left or were elsewhere when the picture was taken):
(More pictures here.)
Mr. Treggor was nervous at first about how “A Welsh Lullaby” — a five-part piece — would sound with such a large group, some of whom had learned a slightly different arrangement, a few of whom had never actually performed the song before (though they pretty much knew it anyway; it was one of those songs that friends of chamber singers heard so often that they sometimes just sort of picked it up), and none of whom had ever sung in anything resembling this particular combination of voices, which spanned 11 years and two music directors. But it went off amazingly well. Mr. Treggor said afterward that we sounded better than past choirs sometimes had sounded after rehearsing it over and over. He joked, “Maybe that should tell me something.” Rehearse less, sing better? Heh. :) On the other hand, perhaps we sang beautifully because were guided by Sarah’s spirit.
I managed to discreetly capture an audio recording of the beginning of our performance of “A Welsh Lullaby” at the funeral. Unfortunately, the audio quality is terrible, as the clip was captured with my digital camera, which is not exactly a high-end audio recorder. Also unfortunately, my camera stopped 55 seconds into the song, so it’s only a partial recording. (I do like the fact that it happened to stop immediately after we sang the words “looking on your smiling face” — the very same lyric that struck me while looking at pictures of Sarah and inspired my brainstorm in the first place.) Still, at least it’s something. You can download the MP3 or listen below:
source file
I also have a partial recording of our singing “Amazing Grace,” not from the actual performance (at the gravesite dedication service) but from our rehearsal in the morning at Mr. Treggor’s house. Again, the clip only includes the beginning of the song, and again the audio quality is terrible, but for what it’s worth… download here or listen below…
Of course, far, far better quality (and complete) versions of both songs are the recordings that were made for the Ars Musica CD by the 2000-01 NHS Chamber Choir, including Sarah:
A Welsh Lullaby: MP3 file
Amazing Grace: MP3 file
As long as I’m sharing Ars Musica recordings, here’s an audio clip where you can hear Sarah on solo from 0:38 to 1:20. It’s “Appalachian Carol” (a.k.a. “I Wonder As I Wander”), from the same 2000-01 chamber CD. Unfortunately, there was apparently some confusion between Sarah and Mr. Treggor about whether she was supposed to sing with vibrato, so it’s not her best performance — but it’s still beautiful, and for those who have never heard her sing before, it gives you some idea what we’re talking about when we praise her vocal talents so highly:
Appalachian Carol: MP3 file
Mr. Treggor said he will send me some clips from Sarah’s performance in “West Side Story,” and I will upload those if/when I get them, along with any other audio I’m able to get my hands on.
Again, all of this is also at the permanent Sarah LeFoll memorial page.
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Categories: Sarah LeFoll, Audio clips
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September 25th, 2005 at 12:11:51 pm
Wow.
Sarah’s spirit must be soaring!
September 25th, 2005 at 12:27:27 pm
Very very fine Memorial Page.
September 26th, 2005 at 1:15:37 pm
Thanks Brendan. This is the way we’d all like to remember Sarah!
September 26th, 2005 at 3:18:15 pm
Very moving, Brendan. Your undying love for Sarah shines through. T
September 26th, 2005 at 3:52:39 pm
I feel compelled, for some reason, to post some lyrics that have always gotten me through tough times:
“Life may sometimes be sad, but it’s always beautiful” –Jamie Lydell “Question Mark”
RIP sarah.
September 28th, 2005 at 8:59:20 pm
Thank you Brendan for honoring the “light of our life”. It is truly remarkable, yet fitting.
Nana & Pepere
February 9th, 2006 at 11:25:34 pm
Thanks for making and keeping this page running Brendan. I had deleted the few photos of Sarah I had before the tragedy since she thought they were bad and was going to send me some good ones. So while they’re not personal, everyone else’s photos help compliment the good memories.
February 10th, 2006 at 7:40:18 pm
I FOUND SARAHS SITE.I DID NOT KNOW SARAH,OR HER FAMILY,RELATIVES,OR FRIENDS.I WOULD FEEL BAD LEAVING SARAHS SITE NOT POSTING ANYTHING.TO SARAHS FAMILY,RELATIVES,AND FRIENDS,IM SORRY.
July 16th, 2006 at 6:33:04 pm
My wife, Carol died in Nov 2004 after a 4 1/2 year battle with
Ovarian cancer. She opted for no more treatments about a month
before her death. She had that time to plan her services.
Since our son and his friends were quite musical, she asked him
to have a couple of his friends sing three songs, one of which
was the Welsh Lullaby. The one condition Carol had was that she wanted to hear hear it before she died. Carol had been a teacher for many years
and was loved by many. Word of Carol’s request spread and
the group grew to about 40 people, including Dr. Tom Davies,
head of the music department at Cal Poly University in San Luis
Obispo, our home town. On a Sunday just before Carol passed, the
entire group came to our home to sing. Carol had to be helped
downstairs and was placed in a chair. The group of mostly Cal
Poly students cried as they sang to Carol. It was the most
moving thing you can imagine. 19 months later I just loaded
the recording on my Itunes. I was searching for the lyrics
when I came across your webpage. Just thought I’d share the
story. PS, Carol requested that all flowers intended for her
services be sent to our three area hospitals to new single
mothers. We were together just short of 32 years. Mark
July 25th, 2006 at 5:05:15 pm
Hi, I found your site while looking for the song “A Welsh Lullaby” to include in a sympathy card for a friend who recently
lost his grandmother. I couldn’t think of any song that’s more proper than this one. It’s been my favorite lullaby since
Christian Bale lypsynched in Empire of the Sun, as he’s saluting the Japanese Kamikase pilots about to leave on their last
flight. I didn’t know Sarah, but can already tell that she was an angel to all who knew her, and know that if i’d known
her, i’d feel the same way. My deepest sympathy for her family and friends as well. God bless you on your work in bringing
tribute to her memory. Thanks for your site.
August 3rd, 2006 at 6:49:32 am
Thank you so much Brendon for your undying sense of caring for our fallen angel, Sarah. As you may know we are fast approaching the one year anniversary of that terrible day in all our lives. Time has softened the anguish but will never fill the void left by our Sarah. We are having a private memorial tribute in celebration of her all too brief life on Saturday September 16th which will be celebrated in prayer and song as she would no doubt expect. We cordially invite all those who knew, love and miss her to join in that celebration with a moment of thought for her passing.
Sarah would have been 23 years old on September 12. Happy Birthday Scooch.
Again and forever, our gratitude for your web site.
Nana & Pepere