In memoriam of Gary Louis Barnes Jr.

I am a friend of Inez that is starting this GoFundMe for her and Giovanni to help ease things for them. I know that both Inez and Gio are feeling immense pain and sorry for losing Gary and my heart goes out to them. With that said I am sharing the following message from Inez. This message was for the grief that she and her son feel and is not representative of the entire family or all his friends he is leaving behind.

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Friends and family,

I am writing to you today with a heavy heart. I want to let you know about the sudden and unexpected loss of my husband Gary Louis Barnes Jr. Our beloved passed on September 19th, 2022. Gary was a loving husband, father and friend. During his short time here he has touched many lives and will be truly missed.

He leaves behind myself as his wife, and my son Giovanni Barnes. We are devastated by this loss and would love nothing more than to give Gary the funeral he deserves, to honor his memory and say our last goodbyes. I am asking in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to help cover the cost of Gary's funeral services and assist general cost of living for Giovanni. No donation is too small - all love, support and generosity is greatly appreciated.

You can’t look at Gary's life and not also look at all he's been through and the many challenged he's faced. Despite Gary's challenges in life we remained married and he was the best father he could be in his given situation.

There’s a feeling in me of, almost an unfairness to it, because Gary was so brilliant in so many ways. He was an incredibly talented baseball player, so talented that he had his tuition paid to attend the State of California University and never went. He knew sign language and never forgot it. He always read the bible our daily bread. He was baptized. Truth is in Gary's darkest days he never stops smiling, and laughing and letting his son and me achieve anything. Gary's faith in Jesus gave him strength. He always wanted to be a father and he was an amazing dad. He enjoyed caring for his son when I had a bad postpartum after Giovanni's birth. Gary risked his freedom and would fly back and forth from Las Vegas to CA often with their infant son after he was denied an out of state transfer. Our love was not the ideal love. But regardless, it never faded. He told me he used to pray to God to bring him an Angel and he said that was me - I was the angel God sent him. Friends used to say there were hearts all around us when they saw us together.

Gary never lost contact with myself and our son.

It's just so terribly sad about the way in which he died, and I wish I would have done more. Myself and Giovani never gave up on him, we believed he was going to change because he had so many dreams for us, so we remained hopeful. Me and Gary had such a strong energy that Gary started tagging "Gunew" anywhere he knew I would see just to let me know he was alive. He loved to talk on the phone, he called me and Giovanni from the first phone that he was able to use. Love those people in your life that matter to you.