ENID, Okla. — On March 6, 2004, a family got the worst news possible. It was cancer, leukemia.
When her final blood tests came back, her doctor called and said, “Get to OU Medical center, now.” The challenging and heartbreaking journey for Amy Barnes and her family had begun. “I will never forget that day,” said her husband, Brett, middle school principal at Chisholm, sniffling as he talked.
“Everything changed and it would never be the same.” “I had never seen my dad cry,” Brylee, his daughter, said. “I walked into his office when he was having lunch alone.
” Brylee is a senior at Chisholm High School, and her father is across the parking lot at the Chisholm campus. Amy’s journey had hit the entire Chisholm family hard. The support has been ongoing.
“I thought it mainly touched Chisholm, but of course, it has touched Enid, too,” Brett said. More than 300 people from Enid, Hennessey and Alva donated blood. It became a Northwest Oklahoma story with many fundraisers and large numbers of people showing up to support Amy and her family.
There was a golf tournament, raffles and jars in local businesses. “I was really surprised at how many people came to the fundraiser in Hennessey,” said Connie Barnes. She and her husband, Gene, who was a longtime teacher in Hennessey, had lived in that community for 40 years.
They moved to Enid about a year ago because they each had farms in Lahoma and Fairmont. Brylee and brother Brayson, who is starting his freshman year at Chisholm, have been staying with their grandparents. “I never thought we’d be driving teenagers around and having our grandkids here all the time,” Connie said.
“We love them so much but this is not supposed to happen.” Amy was an extremely active and fit person. Many mothers in the area knew her from owning Stroller Fit.
Several said Amy was fun to work out with and motivational. “There is no one more resilient than Amy,” Brett said. “My mom is the toughest woman I know,” Brylee added.
“It has been hard going back to school and not seeing her on the bench of my volleyball games.” After her days at Stroller Fit, she became a secretary at Chisholm Elementary School. But when a teacher quit mid year at the middle school, Amy answered the call and became a sixth-grade science teacher.
Along with being an assistant volleyball coach, she helped coach basketball and track. “She watched a video of my first volleyball game and had all types of instructions,” Brylee said. “We did Facetime and she coached me.
” Brayson said it was scary but he tried to stay positive. “It has been a little easier for me to leave middle school and go to high school,” Brayson said. “I don’t see that they are both gone from school.
” The day after Amy went to the hospital, he pitched a no- hitter for his mom. Out of 160 days, Amy was home three times for a total of 10 days. “She feels good when she comes home but is tired,” Brett said.
They feel safer when she is at the hospital. In late May, Amy suffered from heavy nose bleeds and was over-anxious. Doctors decided to intubate Amy so she could rest.
They planned on three days and it turned into eight. “It was so hard to see all the tubes and not be able to talk to her,” Brett said. “It was awful.
” Amy had a blood clot embedded in her lung and one in her heart they were watching closely. She was on an experimental drug for a gene mutation and they were hoping for a bone marrow transplant. As school started again, Brett was trying to figure things out with school and the kids.
He has only missed eight days being with her when he recently caught COVID. “I could not leave her alone, so I stayed in the room at the end of the hall they called their penthouse room,” Brett said. Brayson is quarterback on the freshman team that plays on Monday nights.
“I hope her parents can stay that night and I will commute,” he said, a tear running down his face. “We will figure it out.” Amy was upset about school starting and her not being there.
“I know my mom misses most not being a mom,” Brylee said. Brett’s father, Gene Barnes, said he hated to hear the phone ring. “I can’t stand the thought of getting the call,” he said.
The last thing Brett said Thursday afternoon in his office is they needed a miracle, it wasn’t dire yet, but they needed a miracle. It did not come. After a negative bone marrow biopsy on Friday, they brought Amy home on Saturday.
She died Sunday night in her home with her family. Her best friend Deanne Sampson is heartbroken. “I met Amy at Stroller Fit 18 years ago, and then we worked out together.
” she said. “I will miss her so much. Brett and Amy were a beautiful couple, which is rare.
I’m glad she is not hurting anymore.” A message went out to Chisholm parents and students on Monday. “We are all hurting,” Superintendent Marcus Chapman said.
“It is a big loss for us.” Brett said the biggest lesson he learned was not taking anything for granted. Her funeral will be 1 p.
m. Friday in the Hennessey High School auditorium. Burial will follow in Waukomis Cemetery.
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