Arts & Entertainment

Rhiannon Hull: 'A Rock Star Who Flamed Out Too Soon'

More than 300 pack Memorial Celebration at Studio Barndiva in Healdsburg.

Rhiannon Hull touched so many people with her vibrancy, her smile, her strong presence and her enthusiasm for life that many said they thought of her as their best friend.

"I knew as soon as I saw her that she was it," said her husband Norm Hull, 35, of Healdsburg. "The time I had with her were the best 12 years of my life."

Rhiannon Hull, 33, . She was swept away by a  strong tide, but not before keeping her younger son Julian, 6, above water until he could be rescued -- saving his life. She had gone to Costa Rica only five weeks earlier to start a Waldorf kindergarten.

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More than 300 people poured into the gallery space at in Healdsburg Sunday to pay tribute and share memories of Hull, a former varsity distance runner at the University of Oregon, yoga instructor and aspiring Waldorf school teacher.

Attendees ranged from the Hulls' two boys -- Julian and Gianni, 8 -- to high school and college friends from Oregon, to siblings and parents, Healdsburg yoga community members, Waldorf school educators and parents and the Hulls' many friends.

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"I like to think of her as a rock star who flamed out too soon," said Scott Keneally of Healdsburg, a close friend of both Rhiannon and Norm Hull, in his eulogy. "But instead of leaving us a seminal album, she's left us Julian and Gianni -- amd a blueprint for the right way to live."

Keneally's moving, funny and bittersweet eulogy included stories about Hull, such as how she won the in 2010, even though "when the starter gun went off, she was in the (Healdsburg) police station bathroom with my wife ().

"Despite the fact she spotted the leaders a half-mile lead in the six-mile race, she took off like a cheetah and won the damned thing," Keneally said.

Jil Hales, operator of Studio Barndiva and a member of the said Hull's death is a strong "reminder of how precious life is" and how fast it can be taken away -- even from those who seem that nothing could touch them.

"She seemed to be invincible --  a vibrant, alive, really positive force," Hales said.

"It seemed like there was nothing she couldn't do," she said.  "That's the whole tragedy --it's a shock to us because she was so strong and invincible."

Hull's high school best pals in Oregon -- Gabby Coffman, now of Portland, and Grace Funk, now of Washington, D.C. -- said the three were inseparable during high school and college years and later traveled to Europe together.

"We were the 'Three Musketeers,'" said Coffman, who ran track with Hull. "She was the matron of honor at my wedding (in 2010)."

Another University of Oregon runner, Kate Crabb Waterman, said she was surprised and happy to return to her family home Healdsburg in July to find that Hull had also relocated there. The two had run together every day in college.

"I was with my sister (Julie Cyphers) in the locker room at and I heard a voice that sounded familiar," Waterman said. "My sister said, 'You're not going to believe this.'"

Hull's stepmother Gloria Fluetsch of Cinncinati said Hull's legacy was that people should "get past all the negativity and strive for everything good in life," she said.

"If you want to honor her, follow your heart, stop procrastinating and do what you were meant to do," said Fluetsch, who was a mother to Hull from age 18 months to 18 years.

Matthew Oropeza, now a hotel manager in San Francisco, said he met Norm Hull in Bend, Ore. in 2006 and "he became like a brother to me since the day we met," he said. Oropeza and his wife took care of the Hulls' children from time to time and were inspired by their parenting, he said.

"Seeing them parent those children convinced us to go for it," Oropeza said, his voice breaking. "They said we could do it the way we want to do it -- not the way our parents did it or someone else."

Healdsburg entrepreneur who was moderator for the memorial service, said Hull's positive nature and support "helped me peel back the callouses from my wounds and helped me be open to life and to love," he said.

"She showed me what is caring and what is love," he said.

Donations to the family may be made in Hull's honor to the Julian and Gianni Hull Education Fund at Wells Fargo Bank. For information, contact Jenn@yogaoncenter.com.

A candlelight memorial yoga class in Hull's honor will be taught from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Friday at where Hull was an instructor.

 

 

 

 

 


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