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Remembering the life of Norm Paolini

One of the co-founders of St. Luke's Mission of Mercy has passed away. Norm Paolini was 71-years-old.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Western New York is remembering the life of the man who co-founded St. Luke's Mission of Mercy on Buffalo's East Side.

For nearly 25 years, Norm Paolini helped feed, clothe, and bring shelter and spiritual guidance to thousands of Buffalo's neediest. In 1994, friends Norm Paolini and Amy Betros bought St. Luke's and its buildings from the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.

In the years since, St. Luke's Mission of Mercy has grown to serve 150,000 meals a year.

We spoke with Paolini in 2008 about his mission.

"It's most important that we be here. It's like going to the battlefield and you go to the wounded first," said Paolini.

Paolini passed away Monday at the age of 71 following battles with Parkinson's Disease and brain cancer.

"This is the type of legacy that Norm Paolini left. This is what it was all about. Serving those people...diapers are expensive, baby formula is expensive, but Norm and Amy found a way to pull people together with faith and God's mercy, and this works," explained Michael Taheri.

Taheri is an associate missionary at St. Luke's and one of Norm's closest friends.

"Spiritually, Norm is still with us. He's not here, we don't see him, but what Norm Paolini taught us as missionaries, as people of faith, remains,” he says.

Paolini was a researcher at Roswell, but felt a calling to start St Luke's, which now includes a food pantry, housing, a school, and a mall where people can shop free of charge. He also loved playing his guitar and recently took up boxing to help with his Parkinson's.

"He loved it, so I really remember from just the non-faith as a human, he enjoyed fishing and exercising and just being with people," says Taheri.

Taheri shared his most cherished memory of Norm Paolini with us.

"When our son was sick, he was in the hospital. Norm Paolini - Parkinson’s, he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor - it's one o'clock in the morning, Norm Paolini shows up to pray with us, and here's a guy who's sicker than my son. But he knew that our family was in need," says Taheri.

Services for Norm Paolini are still being planned, but should be sometime this week.

Taheri says he expects hundreds, if not thousands, to be there.

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