As I think everyone knows, Barbara Goldenberg had been suffering some health issues for a while now.
Not that she ever complained — not at all — she was always cheerful, positive, full of life.
I can’t imagine there was a person anywhere who didn’t like her. In addition to her many civic contributions, she was maybe the nicest, most genuine, open, polite and friendly person on the planet.
If everyone treated each other the way Barbara treated everyone, world peace would reign supreme.
Her passion, of course, was trees. She was always raising money for the Coral Trees in the San Vicente median strip, the London Plane trees that lined the same boulevard, and she wrote a book about the trees of Brentwood Park.
If you ever had the opportunity to see her back yard, it was absolutely magnificent. Everything was very Zen-like — kind of like Barbara.
Though she was very smart, very capable — and, in her own way, very powerful — she never once, that I can recall, tried to push her weight around. She just had a way of asking firmly but nicely. And she usually got what she wanted!
Barbara’s legacy will be trees, but I hope we can use her memory to plant the seeds of Barbara Goldenberg-like civility and hope that they bloom far and wide.
