Monday night was bittersweet. Through the evening, a lot of friends and neighbours shared food and drink in anticipation of holiday festivities, just days away. But in the middle of a special wine and food tasting at the Tin Mill, a local eatery in Uxbridge, Ont., I listened to a friend of mine grieve. He couldn’t fathom that just eight weeks ago, his son Christopher was as alive as ever.
“I wake up each day thinking he’ll be there,” Warren Skinner told me. “It’s absolutely surreal.”
Christopher, Warren and Ellen Skinner’s 27-year-old son, died on Adelaide Street in Toronto on Oct. 18. He’d been celebrating his sister Taryn’s birthday in the city’s entertainment district. He’d begun to walk home about 3 a.m. As best authorities could determine, it appeared that Christopher and occupants of a dark-coloured SUV had a confrontation. The police said his attackers beat Chris to the ground, then drove over him and sped away. That cowardly act snuffed out an extraordinary young man’s life and devastated his family.
In the days that followed, this town held its breath. Homicide officers with the Toronto Police Service announced they had security video footage from the area. It showed the SUV speeding away. A few days later, as a thousand gathered in Toronto for a candlelight vigil, everybody expected it would only be a matter of time before police made arrests. Then, in response to deafening silence and frustration, TPS announced a $50,000 reward for information. The Skinners offered a further $25,000, hoping someone might step forward.
Well, no witnesses have stepped forward yet. But this town certainly has.
No more so than Monday night, when co-restaurateurs Don Andrews and Conrad Lepine presented a unique fundraiser at the Tin Mill. The two hospitality veterans called upon friends and business associates alike to step up the plate – as it were – to share an evening of wine and food tasting in aid of the Skinners’ reward fund. Sysco Foods, Len Graphics, Stage One, both newspapers and the Tin Mill staff all offered supplies and services. Conrad told me he’s conducted business with such wine and spirits suppliers as Kittling Ridge, Willow Springs, Ocala, Profile Wine Group, The Vine and Corby Distilleries for so long, he felt sure he could depend on them to contribute to the tasting. They responded right away.
“We wanted to raise a good deal of money in a hurry,” Don Andrews told me. “This seemed the best way to do it.”
Though we didn’t expect them, Ellen and Warren Skinner and other members of the family arrived at the Tin Mill to join in. For many of us, it was the first time since Christopher’s funeral, that this community had had a chance to express its concern. I can’t remember hugs and conversation with such heartfelt, genuine emotion. A woman new to town couldn’t believe so many – nearly 200 people – would show that kind of support. I suggested it wasn’t unusual considering how closely the Skinners and this town are tied together.
Of Christopher, I have a number of vivid memories. I recall fondly the times when he and our daughter Whitney appeared with Uxbridge Youth Choir and the Port Perry High School music ensemble “Jazzmerize.” The Skinners and the Barrises often shared duties chauffeuring the two to and from early morning rehearsals or evening performances. It meant the world to them to have those moments on stage doing what they loved. They had no idea how much it meant to us – their parents.
“Christopher was so vital,” Ellen Skinner said to me Monday night.
As I listened to Warren describe the last eight weeks, I watched a man tormented and distraught by the events of Oct. 18. At one point in our conversation he showed me the contents of his pocket – principal among the cards and slips of paper were a couple of snapshots of Christopher. He said he looked at them often. He told me an extraordinary story about the impact of Christopher’s funeral on one of his working colleagues – a judge in Newmarket. The woman had come away from the service so moved that she said she wished she had known Christopher and finally she told Warren, “I’ve decided to be a better person.”
Like the extraordinary evening Don and Conrad arranged, I’m sure my experience Monday night was but a sample of the genuine outpouring of support for Ellen and Warren Skinner. The evening raised a lot of money. It sparked some laughter, plenty of reminiscences and continued concern that neither the Skinners’ job nor our job is complete – until the fund and the case are successfully closed. As things wound down at the Tin Mill Monday night, I asked Warren finally why he and Ellen had chosen to come.
“We had to,” he said. “We had to embrace this moment.”
So did we all.
