Juan Raimundo Barbas

Juan R. Barbas, 70, died peacefully at home in the early hours of April 16, 2022, after a valiant five year battle with colon cancer. A loving and devoted family man and friend, Juan will be greatly missed by all who knew him. He will be remembered as a kind and peaceful man, and one who always had a smile on his face. He was grateful for everything he had, and focused on the positive at all times. He didn’t want his illness to limit what he could do, and as a result he stayed very active. He set out to walk 10,000 steps every day, and he reached that goal for 821 consecutive days from November 2019-February 2022. Juan truly was an inspiration to everyone.

Juan was born and raised in Candás, a small village in Asturias, a province in the northern part of Spain, where he was known to family and friends as “Cuco.” There, he met the love of his life, Diana, and moved to New York to marry her and start a family together. He loved sports, and being from Spain, soccer was his favorite, but he grew to love baseball and other sports after moving to the US and became a fan of all New York sports teams, especially the Yankees. He had many great memories of watching sports with his family, but his favorite memory was when Spain won the World Cup in 2010. Juan also enjoyed photography, gardening, walking, being outdoors, and spending time with family and friends.

Juan truly was a kid at heart, and he was loved by all children. Throughout his life he would be surrounded by them as they seemed to gravitate towards him. One of his biggest joys was seeing a smile on a child’s face. No matter how tired he was, he always made time to play with his children, nieces, nephews, neighbors, friends, etc. and invariably found ways to make them laugh. In 2018, he became a grandfather for the first time, and two years later, his second grandchild was born. Victor and Vincent quickly became his best buddies, and they genuinely were the “apples of his eye.” They loved their “Güelo Cuco,” and will miss him tremendously.

Juan is survived by his wife Diana, his two children and son-in-law, Juan Miguel Barbas, Ana Maria (Seth) Van Gaasbeek, his two grandsons, Victor and Vincent, his sisters Josefina Barbas and Mari Barbas, and several nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

Family will receive friends on Wednesday from 3-7pm at Higgins Funeral Home in New City, NY. Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Thursday, 10am, at St. Peter’s Church, Haverstraw, NY, followed by interment at St. Anthony’s Cemetery, Nanuet, NY. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to United Hospice of Rockland, 11 Stokum Lane, New City, NY 10956, or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.