Everywhere around Bob and Barbara Hogue are reminders of their
son, Barry. He would have been 36 today, but on a particularly cold
February morning nearly six years ago, life went terribly
wrong.
Everywhere around Bob and Barbara Hogue are reminders of their son, Barry. He would have been 36 today, but on a particularly cold February morning nearly six years ago, life went terribly wrong.
The 29-year-old single father of two was critically burned in a chemical explosion at the Quantic Industries plant in Hollister.
Rushed by helicopter to San Jose Valley Medical Center, he clung to life, held in a vegetative state by medication to ease the pain of third degree burns that covered 60 percent of his body.
He held on for three weeks, 10 hours and 52 minutes, recalled his mother, a retired nurse who took turns spending 24 hour shifts at her son’s bedside, talking to him and wiping the sleep from his eyes.
The Hogues adopted their grandchildren and, convinced that the 1,100-square-foot house they’d bought as newlyweds in 1962 was too small, began searching the neighborhood for a suitable home. Somewhere along the way, their grandson Robert, now 15, started crying.
“He said, ‘Nonni, we can’t leave this house; my daddy’s here,'” said Barbara. “That was the end of the search.”
Instead, the Hogues gutted their property, remodeling the home top to bottom except for the giant stained glass window that dominates the room Barry had shared with his two small children when he moved home to make parenting easier.
They knocked down the walls of a galley kitchen, opening the floor plan of that, the dining room and the living room to form a single 67-foot great room, complete with Viking Stove, granite countertops, distressed wooden furniture and Tiffany-style lamps in front of the giant stone fireplace.
“Barbara’s had health problems,” said Bob, as Barbara explained that she’d had a heart attack and triple bypass surgery. “She can’t travel, but she loves Tahoe, so we decided to make it like Tahoe right here. That’s the reason for all the rustic look and the waterfall in the pool.”
High ceilings, exposed beams and an eclectic country appeal designed by Dave Sheedy of Hewell & Sheedy Contractors meld seamlessly with the texture-laden, highly decorative front yard designed by GB Horticulture. It’s filled with brick, bronze and everything from Japanese maple to manzanita, giving the home the look of a woodland retreat.
For the children, the couple created dream bedrooms. Their grandson’s stately suite contains a walk-in closet, a private bathroom and an armoire filled with a TV, video games and mini-fridge, while their 13-year-old granddaughter Kaitlin’s room, nicknamed the princess room, is a cozy retreat containing a fireplace, four-poster bed and pink and white chandelier.
Outside Kaitlin’s bedroom door is her very own secret garden, a tucked-away seating area filled with colorful flowers, copper garden hangings and statues of gnomes, frogs and fairies, but the Hogues pull it all off without seeming stuffy.
“My mom had pink silk couches and a white rug, and my father was a farmer,” said Barbara. “I always thought, ‘I would never do that.’ I want my house clean and neat, but the whole philosophy is don’t worry about taking your shoes off or dropping your bag in here. It’s 100 percent livable.”
In the afternoons, the grandkids often bring their friends over, and as time has gone by, the home has become quite a hangout, said Barbara. It’s a place that would make Barry proud, and one he never left.
The family stopped by the house with the hearse on the way to Barry’s funeral and they swear his spirit lingers. In Robert’s room, the duck stamp paintings his father treasured line the walls, and in his dad’s childhood bedroom, the kids now do their homework on two large computers, surrounded by pictures. Even outside the front door, looking back into the curtainless kitchen, a little bit of him is still there. The heart he carved into a roadside tree remains, watching over the home the family will not, cannot part with.
