Barney was first photographed with his granddaughter and mother in front of his Austintown home on Easter. At nearly 80 years old, Barney was still working onsite three days a week for a manufacturing company, even throughout the Stay-at-Home order, as his employer was deemed an essential business. While trade shows and conferences were all canceled, employees worked in a shared office without any health or safety precautions in place. Barney was concerned about contracting COVID-19 and spreading the virus to the four others who lived in his home, but there were no alternative options for work.
When the Stay-at-Home order was lifted, Barney changed his work schedule to help his youngest daughter with childcare for the duration of 2020.He drove to Akron weekly to spend the night at his daughter’s house so he could babysit his grandson two days a week. Because of his help, his daughter and son-in-law could have two guaranteed work in-office work days.
On the home front, Barney had an overloaded plate. His partner’s son (Mike) and granddaughter (Raven) moved into their home in 2019, after Raven’s mother died from a drug overdose. Mike was battling addiction which caused him to overdose multiple times over the past 5 years. While he did survive, his addiction consumed his life—resulting in rehab, jail time, probation, and losing custody of his daughter. Barney and his partner took custody of Raven and allowed Mike to remain a regular part of Raven’s life while he maintained sobriety.
From 2020-2022, Barney’s mother went through a bout of illnesses and infections which put her in the hospital a handful of times and and a rehab facility for three weeks. “Because of mom’s age, we were able to get her the COVID vaccine in the beginning of 2021, that was a big relief,” he said. He and his partner also qualified for the COVID vaccine in early 2021 due to age and high risk medical conditions.
As more people got vaccinated and clients were opening up their doors again, Barney had more work travel. He continued his busy schedule—a 3-day work week and 1-2 days of babysitting in Akron on top of taking care of the 4 people and 10 dogs at his home. His granddaughter is now in third grade at a local public school, and his stepson is continuing to work on his sobriety while living at home.
Barney finally retired in June of 2025 and has put more focus on his home and family. He still babysits in Akron weekly, but now he babysits his 2-year old granddaughter while his grandson is at school. When asked about any major takeaways about the pandemic, or about the past five years, he replied, “I don’t really have much to say about it. I worked the whole time and we all did all right. You just do whatever you need to do to make it work.”
April, 2020
Austintown