In 2008, as my wife was pregnant with my daughter. As I thought of my daughter’s future, I thought of all the schooling she had ahead of her. This made me sentimental and made me think of the people that from school with which I had lost contact. I mentioned to my wife, Yvonne, that of the lost contacts, I would most like to reconnect with my locker mate from high school, Michael Lehman, and my “nemesis” from grade school, Judy Barbosa. Within a week, I reconnected with Michael via Facebook and am happy to say he turned out to be one of the greatest guys I know and to this day we get together to play golf at least once year. Within two weeks, I reconnected with Judy Barbosa, who be one of the smartest most caring persons I have ever had in my life.
Judy and I were classmates at Ravenswood grade school up until 6th grade. I jokingly referred to her as my “nemesis” as the teachers would often pit us against each other in class and at CPS gifted competitions and she would always kick my butt. Looking through old awards, I would always be in the silver or finalist category and Judy in the gold or winner category. On top of that, she was great athlete and the teacher’s favorite. In 6th grade, we were both offered the chance to go Bell magnet. She chose to go whereas my parents chose to keep me close to the house and our paths diverged.
I thought I saw her at Lane once and at U of I as well, but thought I was mistaken. It was not until 2008 that we ran across each other on Classmates.com. It turned out that Judy did not go to Lane, initally, but transferred in after two years at Lincoln Park and that she did indeed go to Chambana, while I was there. It was not my imagination and I had indeed seen her. She said that she saw me, too but that she thought I did not see her in the halls at Lane. In Chambana, she was in the other room as I visited her roommate, but she said she never came out to say “hi” as she thought my visit was of the romantic variety (it was not) and did not want to be a third wheel.
When we reconnected, we emailed and spoke daily for weeks. We were excited to learn of our lives and adventures over the years. the “near misses” we had over the years. We caught up with all the happenings of our neighborhood and Ravenswood friends. We figured out that we ran in different crowds at Lane and Chambana. She served as sounding board and voice of reason for all the fears I had on becoming a father. Funny thing was that I do not think we spoke more than two sentences here and there at a spelling bee or a science fair for four years at Ravenswood, did not talk for 25 years, but we just once we had a chance to reconnect, just became very close friends. I was amazed that she remembered things about me and my family that I had completely forgotten as I did of her as a child. It turned out we were admirers of each other from afar. She felt like family.
We had just had our daughter, Emily, and relocated to Minnesota, so we were not in Chicago very often and also very busy, but I still managed to get together with Judy once a year when I was in town. We emailed weekly, with gaps during peak family times (holidays). When I last spoke to her, we had plans to go to dinner with my wife and daughter when I was back in town for Super Bowl weekend. She emailed me on January 11th, 2010 and I replied on January 14th (we were practicing our Spanish) and did not hear anything back, but initially figured she was busy. Super Bowl weekend and Valentine’s day came and over time I was anfered as I thought she blew me and my family off.
After no reply to my emails, I decided to check the obituaries. This is where I found out that she had passed away. I was devastated that I she had passed. She was the first friend I had ever lost. I was guilty that I got angry at her and that I had missed her ceremony. I did manage to connect with a mutual friend of ours, Herman Worely, and found out that she passed away in a car accident near Kankakee on January 16th. He also told me of the good things that Judy always said about me … that she valued our friendship and that she always wished the best for me and my family.
I also managed to connect with her mom and pass on my belated condolences. Judy had lost most of her pictures in a fire in Europe, so I was able to share with her some pictures I had of as kids and a picture we took a few months before she passed. This and the interaction with Herman, helped me with closure from her passing.
The way she challenged and influenced me as a child helped mold who I grew up to be. Her friendship and advice as an adult influenced the husband, father and human that I am today. In the end, I am saddened by her passing, but am glad that I had a chance to reconnect with her while she was with us. I will always have fond memories of her as a child and as an adult.
Al Martinez
In 2008, as my wife was pregnant with my daughter. As I thought of my daughter’s future, I thought of all the schooling she had ahead of her. This made me sentimental and made me think of the people that from school with which I had lost contact. I mentioned to my wife, Yvonne, that of the lost contacts, I would most like to reconnect with my locker mate from high school, Michael Lehman, and my “nemesis” from grade school, Judy Barbosa. Within a week, I reconnected with Michael via Facebook and am happy to say he turned out to be one of the greatest guys I know and to this day we get together to play golf at least once year. Within two weeks, I reconnected with Judy Barbosa, who be one of the smartest most caring persons I have ever had in my life.
Judy and I were classmates at Ravenswood grade school up until 6th grade. I jokingly referred to her as my “nemesis” as the teachers would often pit us against each other in class and at CPS gifted competitions and she would always kick my butt. Looking through old awards, I would always be in the silver or finalist category and Judy in the gold or winner category. On top of that, she was great athlete and the teacher’s favorite. In 6th grade, we were both offered the chance to go Bell magnet. She chose to go whereas my parents chose to keep me close to the house and our paths diverged.
I thought I saw her at Lane once and at U of I as well, but thought I was mistaken. It was not until 2008 that we ran across each other on Classmates.com. It turned out that Judy did not go to Lane, initally, but transferred in after two years at Lincoln Park and that she did indeed go to Chambana, while I was there. It was not my imagination and I had indeed seen her. She said that she saw me, too but that she thought I did not see her in the halls at Lane. In Chambana, she was in the other room as I visited her roommate, but she said she never came out to say “hi” as she thought my visit was of the romantic variety (it was not) and did not want to be a third wheel.
When we reconnected, we emailed and spoke daily for weeks. We were excited to learn of our lives and adventures over the years. the “near misses” we had over the years. We caught up with all the happenings of our neighborhood and Ravenswood friends. We figured out that we ran in different crowds at Lane and Chambana. She served as sounding board and voice of reason for all the fears I had on becoming a father. Funny thing was that I do not think we spoke more than two sentences here and there at a spelling bee or a science fair for four years at Ravenswood, did not talk for 25 years, but we just once we had a chance to reconnect, just became very close friends. I was amazed that she remembered things about me and my family that I had completely forgotten as I did of her as a child. It turned out we were admirers of each other from afar. She felt like family.
We had just had our daughter, Emily, and relocated to Minnesota, so we were not in Chicago very often and also very busy, but I still managed to get together with Judy once a year when I was in town. We emailed weekly, with gaps during peak family times (holidays). When I last spoke to her, we had plans to go to dinner with my wife and daughter when I was back in town for Super Bowl weekend. She emailed me on January 11th, 2010 and I replied on January 14th (we were practicing our Spanish) and did not hear anything back, but initially figured she was busy. Super Bowl weekend and Valentine’s day came and over time I was anfered as I thought she blew me and my family off.
After no reply to my emails, I decided to check the obituaries. This is where I found out that she had passed away. I was devastated that I she had passed. She was the first friend I had ever lost. I was guilty that I got angry at her and that I had missed her ceremony. I did manage to connect with a mutual friend of ours, Herman Worely, and found out that she passed away in a car accident near Kankakee on January 16th. He also told me of the good things that Judy always said about me … that she valued our friendship and that she always wished the best for me and my family.
I also managed to connect with her mom and pass on my belated condolences. Judy had lost most of her pictures in a fire in Europe, so I was able to share with her some pictures I had of as kids and a picture we took a few months before she passed. This and the interaction with Herman, helped me with closure from her passing.
The way she challenged and influenced me as a child helped mold who I grew up to be. Her friendship and advice as an adult influenced the husband, father and human that I am today. In the end, I am saddened by her passing, but am glad that I had a chance to reconnect with her while she was with us. I will always have fond memories of her as a child and as an adult.