Sophomore Patrick Barrett loved sports.
His father was a high school football coach for North Putnum High School, so Patrick grew up playing football, basketball and baseball. His favorite teams were the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Chicago Cubs and the IU Hoosiers.
“Sports-wise, he never wanted to be the guy in the front and never wanted to be the guy in the back,” his father, Greg Barrett, said. “He was always that guy in the middle, making sure he was doing what he was supposed to.”
However, when Patrick got sick for the first time in the eighth grade, he couldn’t enjoy sports like he used to. He was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of cancer often found in bone or soft tissue.
After treatment, he beat the Ewing’s sarcoma, only to develop a secondary cancer five years later called osteosarcoma.
Despite chemotherapy treatments and signs of improvement, the 19-year-old chemistry and pre-med student died March 10 in Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health.
"He was a kid who battled this for a long time and never complained about anything,” Greg said. “He kind of just always wanted to know what the next step was, what he needed to do to beat this.”
After his first bout with cancer, Patrick played high school football at Terre Haute North Vigo High School until his sophomore year, when friends said he learned football just wasn’t his thing.
Aaron Shema, a close friend, said the Barrett family came from a long history of football players, with Patrick Barrett’s great-grandfather coaching a local high school team.
“My grandpa remembers playing for the Barretts,” Shema said. “And he was the first Barrett to say ‘I’m not going to play football.’”
But that was Patrick. An independent, curious and strangely intelligent person, according to his friends and family.
“He made the best out of every situation,” said Patrick’s freshman-year roommate C.J. Brooks. “He was the strongest person I ever met.”
Patrick loved movies, watching favorites like “Caddyshack” and “Airplane!” on Netflix with his friends.
He was an awesome big brother to his two 12- and 13-year-old sisters, Maggie and Maureen, Greg said.
“Just like you would want, he took care of his sisters,” Greg said, adding that Patrick never let the two feel neglected while he was undergoing treatment.
Patrick was adventurous and fun-loving, Brooks said, yet very private about his battle with cancer.
Brooks said the night Patrick learned his cancer had returned, the two and another close friend snuck into the Arboretum, where Patrick shared his fears and why he was so interested in studying medicine.
“He wanted to go into oncology at one time,” Greg said. “To help kids so they wouldn’t have to struggle with the same kind of things he did.”
Shema was studying at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, when he found out Patrick’s cancer had returned. He bought the first plane ticket back to Indiana as soon as Patrick had told him.
Friends since the second grade at St. Patrick School in Terre Haute, Shema said the two supported one another through Patrick’s cancer and the death of Shema’s mother when the boys were in fifth grade.
“I don’t know what I would be or what I would have done without Patrick during those years,” Shema said. “Every friend I’ve made was because of him. I can’t even comprehend what those years without him would be.”
Shema said he thinks Patrick would want to be remembered not for any particular action, but for his spirit and for being nice to others.
“He really wouldn’t want anybody that he wasn’t really close with to mourn his loss,” Shema said. “But maybe pick up on some of the things that he did and duplicate them, even if it’s subconsciously, just trying to be a better person, just trying to help out other people a little bit.”
