I still find myself fondly remembering Barry after all these years. He and I had been going out since our freshman year. The summer before he passed away, he was a member of the Southern California Youth Chorale and he went on tour with them to Europe. He came home early because he passed out several times when they were in Italy, I believe. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do was to call all our friends and tell them that Barry was gone, his mom had asked me to do that and under the circumstances I couldn't do anything less. I remember parents getting angry with me, telling me it wasn't a nice joke to play - I told them it was ok if they didn't want to believe me that they could call the family but I thought that was pretty insensitive. Dean Merrill was his best friend, I believe he was a palbearer at the funeral, I can't honestly remember who else was. The service was held at Church of the Lighted Window and it was standing room only. Barry truly never knew how many friends he had. Concert Choir sang at the funeral - his favorite song, The Impossible Dream, and Sine Nomine. To this day I have a hard time singing either of those songs. We had talked about getting married afgter high school, I don't know what the future would have held, if we would have stayed together or not. All I can say was he was an important part of my high school experience, one that I will always treasure.
Kathy Loop (Picking/McCaffry)
I still find myself fondly remembering Barry after all these years. He and I had been going out since our freshman year. The summer before he passed away, he was a member of the Southern California Youth Chorale and he went on tour with them to Europe. He came home early because he passed out several times when they were in Italy, I believe. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do was to call all our friends and tell them that Barry was gone, his mom had asked me to do that and under the circumstances I couldn't do anything less. I remember parents getting angry with me, telling me it wasn't a nice joke to play - I told them it was ok if they didn't want to believe me that they could call the family but I thought that was pretty insensitive. Dean Merrill was his best friend, I believe he was a palbearer at the funeral, I can't honestly remember who else was. The service was held at Church of the Lighted Window and it was standing room only. Barry truly never knew how many friends he had. Concert Choir sang at the funeral - his favorite song, The Impossible Dream, and Sine Nomine. To this day I have a hard time singing either of those songs. We had talked about getting married afgter high school, I don't know what the future would have held, if we would have stayed together or not. All I can say was he was an important part of my high school experience, one that I will always treasure.