June 19, 2012 was the day I first photographed a birth with my own camera, a business license, and a steadfast supporter as my client. It was the day I became a birth photographer.
This is still one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken.
That’s Sadie, less than an hour old, staring deeply into the eyes of her father, Sean.
And when I say I had a steadfast supporter in my client - trust me, that’s putting it mildly. Without Riana’s help and support, I never would have been able to continue photographing births during those early years.
To be totally honest with you, I may not have ever noticed the tenth anniversary of my business was starting me in the face; I’m not particularly good with those kind of milestones - every year my husband and I realize at some point later in the summer that we both forgot our anniversary, again. And honestly, I wish with all my heart that this anniversary too would have passed in the background of the crazy chatter of our lives, that nothing would have made it stand out in the absolutely heartbreaking way that it has.
On April 20, 2022, Sadie Barry and her family - her mother Riana, her father Sean, and her big sister Shiway - were murdered in their beds while they slept.
The circumstances surrounding their senseless, unjustified, and untimely deaths are not my story to tell. But I have been encouraged to talk about their lives and the sheer beauty they manifested in the world around them.
I’m still finding it really hard to do that - to get the words out. I hope I can come back and add more later; to continue to write about them, and say their names aloud. I hope that you, reader, remember them; remember that even though they had moved away from Fairbanks, they still had one foot on the ground in Alaska, always; remember seeing them at parks, playdates, La Leche League meetings, Big Latch On events, the Children’s Museum, homeschooling groups, and at Fairbanks’ premiere social hangout, Fred Meyer.
I hope you remember them.
To honor the memory of the Barry family, a small group of dedicated loved ones and I are working hard to establish an endowment at the Fairbanks Children’s Museum to fund scholarships in their name, indefinitely.*
To make the endowment a reality, we have to raise $25,000 as a minimum investment. (We’re at about $10k at the time of this writing.) Please consider donating to our GoFundMe - even $5 will help us reach this goal.
Please, if you can, share this with anyone who knew the Barrys - and anyone you know who wants to support the museum in an especially meaningful way.
*The Barry Family Endowment will be fiscally managed by the Alaska Community Foundation, and the annual dividends will fund the Shiway & Sadie Scholarships for annual family memberships, summer camp tuition, and homeschool curriculum support at the Fairbanks Children’s Museum, by application or nomination. In the first year alone, the endowment will find at least 10 scholarships for annual membership. Still curious? Please feel welcome to contact me with any and all endowment-related questions, and I’ll be more than happy to answer them.
Additional information:
Kris Capps at the Daily News-Miner: Family Honored with Endowment for Fairbanks Children’s Museum
Dougherty Funeral Home obituary with a beautiful slideshow
Legacy.com obituary as published in the DNM