Memories of a Best Friend for 26 Years         for Connie Barker (3-13-1938 to 9-9-2016) Her eyes are magnets for copper pennies, her heart is ocean wide and sky high with dollars for beggars & the homeless. As a beginner in ballroom dancing, women would not teach me, saying "guys must lead" but she did, and we became good dance partners. Since I didn't drive, she moved closer by to take me grocery shopping as well as bringing Dad & Mom to their doctor visits. She worked at AAA for thirty years, made map routes for travelers with motels, restaurants, and sightseeing along the way. She loved cosmology, listened to Michio Kaku, took my friends and me to black hole talks at SETI & SLAC meetings. Practicing transcendental meditation, she excelled her teachers with fire dreams experienced by Descartes and Pascal. A Stanford professor said "Let Connie talk" when we discussed Joseph Campbell's Power of Myth since she had experience more than book knowledge. Ever health conscious, she ate organic food, drank spring water, grinding almond butter, preferred baby food without MSG and GMOs. She went to West Coast Dowsers meetings, used a pendulum to find the age of oaks, locate missing objects, and aid in healing. She took me to Santa Clara UFO Conference to see George Noory, host of Coast-to-Coast.am which she listened nightly on spiritual matters. When I spent too much time on the computers, she took me to hundreds of Bay Area hikes exploring nature and the lofty redwoods. With no clues on flower names on the trails, she told me— forget-me-nots, miner's lettuce, morning glories, and pearly everlasting. Girl Friday, big sister, Mom-like, best friend— she reminded me to shave, cut my hair, do my laundry and pay my bills on time. She phoned me daily to bring her TV listings and comics from the Mercury News; I helped with heavy lifting and more chores as she got weaker. She passed on at Kaiser Santa Clara with her two sons at bedside in Room 3303 on 9-9-2016— square of the Trinity that Dante wrote of Beatrice. Zipoli's Elevazione is playing on KDFC now— I always phoned her favorite when it's on the air— Alas she died yesterday— such sadness on sharing no longer.                 Peter Y. Chou                 Mountain View, 9-10-2016