This memorial website was created in memory of our beloved daughter, sister, niece and friend, Kasmira "Kassie" Barrett, 29, born on September 26, 1986 and passed away on September 20, 2016. We will remember her forever.
Kassie was one of my best friends and one of the few people I kept in touch with from our time at Alfred University. I love Kassie for so many reasons. Her laugh made me laugh, she was a creative thinker, she was sensitive and caring and forgiving, she knew how to really live. Here are a few of my favorite memories of times with Kassie:
Going on walks in the woods above the suites at Alfred, looking at leaves and little animals.
Visiting the cows in a hilltop field behind Kassie's home senior year. We ran down the hill singing songs together.
Getting stuck at Kassie's house on freezing cold snowy nights when her home was just so cozy and warm.
Making beats as we walked around NYC and laughing the whole time.
Going to Kassie's AHRC poetry and cooking classes with her and seeing her work with her clients.
Kassie's expressions when my sister and I were giving her a foot massage (my sister massaged one foot and I massaged the other).
Doing yoga with Kas on the floor in her apartment.
I will always love and miss Kassie. She was and always will be one of my best friends. We shared memories and now I will hold on to them and pass them along to her little girls.
With love, Stephanie
Kassie was born on Friday September 26th in 1986. I was petrified of the responsability of fatherhood. Tried to steel my nerves for the days events. She was suposed to be premature. I told myself "it's going to look like a lizard, but you have to pretend it's cute". I waited outside the delivery room. Scared to death. After an eternity they wheeled out Kassie's mother Holly, and handed Kassie to me. I looked down at this roll of blankets and saw two big brown eyes, blinking from the light, looking up at me. Her lips were pursed in a little "O". She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. My first thought was "I'm in trouble now!". I knew my life, as I had known it, was over. From that moment on I understood that my first responsability was not to myself anymore.
Being a parent has been the hardest and most rewarding job I have ever had. Kassie and her brothers saved me from a wasted life. I saw the man I wanted to be in those beautiful brown eyes. Kassie's nick-name was "The Little Beauty" (given to her by my father ...who she named "Bubba"). Later shortened to "The Beauty", or just "Beauty". a more fitting name there never was. she brought beauty into my life every day of hers. Magically she continues to do so through her daughters, and her memory. Many of her friends know this nick-name. Not so many know her first nick-name. One of her first words was "Duckdoo". A phrase I liked to imagine as "Thank you" when she was very little. I used to kiss her forhead and say "nighty night, Duckdoo" when I put her to bed. I kissed her forhead in the funeral home and said it one last time. God give me the strength to go on until I can see those brown eyes again! I love you Kassie!!!!
Kassie came out to Northern California to visit her two aunts, me and Lynn. It was almost exactly 20 years since her first visit, when she was 8-years-old. This time, Kassie wanted to see the redwoods. So we took her up to Muir Woods. We also saw the special Ai Weiwei exhibit on Alcatraz, went to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, toured the Winchester Mystery House, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, hung out at the Dia des los Muertos festival, and carved Halloween pumpkins.
Lynn and I didn't know it, but Kassie had just learned she was pregnant before her visit. So, Ivy and Sonya, your first visit to California was when you were two tiny "beans," as your Grandpa calls you.
