It is the morning of Good Friday, the day we honor the crucifixion of Jesus many years ago.  A sober and somber time of reflection of the sacrifice our loving God made to pay the price of sin and create a way for us to be reconnected to Him.  It seems appropriate that during this time of thinking about the ultimate life lived to also reflect on my larger than life Barry, and do a final post on this Caring Bridge site with a link to Barry's Celebration of Life service from April 6.

For all of you that were not able to be with us in person, we hope the time we spent in celebrating the amazing man of Barry Barto will be a blessing to you.  What you won't see in the video of the service is the atrium of the church where we congregated to visit with refreshments after. It was filled with beautiful arrangements of flowers and plants, plus photos and memory tables that were set up by friends and family.  In fact, I'm quite sad to say I don't think there was a single photo taken of that area and I thought the set up crew did a remarkable job!

I should probably also mention that we held a memorial service for my mama, Mary Rhodes, though she died a week earlier than Barry had to wait until the following weekend to be honored.  We incorporated the celebration of her life into the worship service at my parents home church in Mills River, NC where she would be best known.  We sang her favorite hymns and used her favorite scriptures.  In addition to the eulogy that I was honored to deliver, the pastor's sermon was so appropriate to her life.  After the service an old friend of my mother's shared a story with me in the parking lot that dissolved the heaviness I held into peales of laughter.  It is the perfect "Mom Story" that absolutely painted a true picture of her unique amazingness.  Here is that story -

My parents invited this friend and her husband over for an eggplant parmesan dinner, and my mom worked very hard throughout the day on this special meal.  Unfortunately she didn't have any eggplant!  So instead of sending my dad up to the store she decided to substitue the eggplant for wheat toast - yes you read that right - wheat toast.  She treated the wheat toast as you would eggplant and breaded and fried it, then laid it out in the baking dish, poured tomato sauce over the top and sprinkled with vegan cheese.  (They were all vegan.)  Mom was quite proud of her "eggplant parmesan" and actually continued to call it eggplant parmesan throughout the meal.  If you knew my mom you are right now grinning and shaking your head up and down..or you're giggling with your head in your hands thinking of all her other very "special" dishes through the years. 

There you have it - my final "Mom Story".  (These are stories shared on Facebook over the years that "The Moms" lived in our home and provided us with all manner of story opportunities! ;-)
  
Moving into "Life After" Barry still seems like an impossibility for me.  I do however have a villiage that continues to love and care for me, so in theory God will make a way where there seems to be no way.  Eventially there will be new adventures to be had, new memories made and a life to be lived that will hopefully honor both my God and my guy.

much love to each of you,  deb

Celebration Service of Barry's Life:  https://vimeo.com/329009831