Last month, we lost two members of our community who will be greatly missed by their friends and family. One was a giant in our community and one of the leading real estate brokers in the Nation’s Capital. The other was a young lady who touched the lives of hundreds of people during her 33 years on this earth,

You would be hard pressed to find a single person in Orléans who didn’t know the name Paul Rushforth. Even if you never met the man, you would have recognized him by the dozens of real estate names and billboards that bore his name, or his face, or both.

Before getting into real estate, Rushforth spent a decade playing professional hockey in North America and Europe. When the British Ice Hockey Super League folded in 2003, he decided to return to Ottawa.

Eight years later, he earned his real estate brokers license and opened Paul Rushforth Realty in Orléans in 2011. Not long afterwards, he organized the first of many charity golf tournaments in support of the Do It For Daron Foundation which raised over $21,000. The Orléans-Cumberland Community Resource Centre was another beneficiary of the tournament.

Rushforth passed away on July 24 at the age of 52. He will be missed by his three children, his partner Sedlakova Blais, and his many friends and colleagues.

Although not as well known as Rushforth, Elizabeth Coventry was just as well loved by her family and friends and will just as deeply missed.

Elizabeth died on July 14 at the age of 33. I didn’t know the young lady but I do know her parents, Ashley Coventry and Sylvie Auger, both of whom taught at St, Peter High School, and if she is anything like her parents she must have been an incredible person. In fact, I’m sure of it.

They say that you can judge a person’s life by the number of people who’s lives they’ve touched in a positive way. Judging by the hundreds of people who took the time to attend her celebration of life on July 23, Elizabeth, or Lizzie as she was called by her family and friends, touched a lot of lives in her 33 years.

A gifted and accomplished horsewoman, Elizabeth built a life doing what she loved. She worked at veterinary clinics and barns throughout the Ottawa and Quebec region, earning the respect and admiration of the equestrian community through her knowledge, skill, and unwavering dedication.

Together with her beloved partner, Yanik Bourdeau, she created a home centered around their hobby farm, where she boarded horses, taught riding and braiding lessons, and generously shared not only her remarkable understanding of horses, but the quiet wisdom she carried through life itself. Like Paul Rushfrorth, she will be deeply missed but never forgotten..