Today, at 9 am I heard the news of my friend Barbara Bancroft’s passing. She was a lady with a golden soul that touched SO MANY lives on TuDiabetes and offline…
The amazing @MrMikeLawson did this in memory of her
Barbara was a staunch believer and a relentless supporter of Diabetes Hands Foundation. She was a super-active member on TuDiabetes, as part of the admin team, a surrogate mom to so many that latched to her her understanding and motherly nature, a generous donor and chair of the community fundraising campaign 2012-2013 at Diabetes Hands Foundation (you can see some of her messages here and here), and above all… a great friend.
I had the fortune to meet her in person multiple times:
She joined us for a #TuDiabetes meetup at LOVE Park in Philadelphia, back in the summer of 2012:
Barbara and I, at the LOVE Park #TuDiabetes meet-up (Summer 2012)
Then, we had a lovely meal in King of Prussia as I was driving up the east coast in September of 2012:
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With Barbara. You can see her license plate: JRTPUP. (Sep. 2012)
In April 2013, her family opened me their doors. I stayed with her, her brother, and her sister-in-law, for a couple of days, before and after a friend-raising event we had in Connecticut:
Barbara and I in front of her brother John’s home (April 2013)
August 2013 was the last time we saw each other. It was in Philadelphia for the AADE conference, where she was (as usual) a BIG helper at the DHF booth:
Mila, myself, Barbara, and Brian at our booth during AADE (Aug. 2013)
We stayed in touch through the rest of last year via email, text message, and occasional phone calls. Earlier this year, I heard through Emily Coles (Head of Communities at Diabetes Hands Foundation) that Barbara’s health had taken a turn for the worse. This was our last email exchange, dated January 7, 2014:
Me: I need to call you in the morning… How are you????
Barbara: Waiting 😉
I got busy. I didn’t call her the next day…
She was a cancer survivor. Last week, she had a stroke after an operation to discern if her cancer had recurred. She never regained consciousness.
I know Barbara would want me to forgive myself for not calling her when I said I would. But I cannot help but think that there was nothing more important for me to do than to call my friend when I told her I would, specially when she was going through so much.
You will be eternally missed, amiga.
Rest in peace, Barbara!
