Paul Lallo 1943-2002

S.P.M. and I.P.M. member Paul Lallo passed away on August 26, 2002, after 2 years of a fierce and desperate battle for life, and a struggle with the thought of life abandoning him. He was 58 years of age.

I met Paul when we were both 13 or 14 years old, together in our third-year Classical Studies program (the traditional secondary-level humanities program at the time) at Collège Sainte-Marie in Montreal.

Soon afterwards, he invited me to his home. The circumstances of that first visit were dramatic. Just as I knocked at the door, the family received a call summoning them to the hospital as Victor, Paul's father, had taken a turn for the worse. I returned home. A short while later, cancer claimed his life. He was only 49.

I was far too affected by death and the devastation it wreaked on the family to be of much use to my new-found friend. The same distress, helplessness, and indignation resurfaced as he saw his own life threatened as he grappled with the thought of dying so young.

From an Italian family of humble means, Paul was noted for his intellectual ability very early in life, which spurred the Italian community to encourage his promising talent. His constant success in secondary school and at the Université de Montréal, where he studied psychology, confirmed that such support was indeed warranted.

The academic sphere, however, was not the only one in which Paul displayed remarkable talent early on. As teenagers, we were part of a youth league whose goal was to give a bit of solace to orphans by organizing monthly visits to an orphanage to provide some fun and recreation. Our group's confidence in Paul was such that he was long entrusted with the role of president—not because he showed the trappings of authority or leadership, but because he was unequalled, even then, in making anyone who sought his attention feel welcome and heard, with care and profound interest. Though he was surely unaware of it at the time, his future path as a therapist was already being m