I am far from the only person Aznavour touched so profoundly. He taught young French people about queer love, when he sang “I am gay, as they say.” (He was not gay.) He spoke eloquently about acceptance of immigrants and refugees, and wrote a song, The Migrants, in their honor. And he brought international attention to the Armenian genocide when he sang “Your spring will bloom again, Your beautiful days will be reborn again, After the winter, After hell, The tree of life will grow,” in For You, Armenia.

Today, we lost Aznavour, a man with an endless amount of love to give, at a time when the world feels dangerously low on love. And I am sitting in my kitchen, crying. But my tears are happy ones filled with love and appreciation—Aznavour wouldn’t have had it any other way.

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