Barbara Jean Guiliano

Barbara Jean (Moreland) Guiliano, 72, affectionately known as “Baba,” died peacefully on October 20, 2025 at her home in Durham, North Carolina. She was surrounded by her husband Patrick, her children Tony and Michael, and her team of caregivers they called “Baba’s Angels.” The cause of death was Cortical Basal Syndrome, a rare and terminal neurological disease with which Barbara was diagnosed in 2021.

Born in Sheridan, Wyoming on February 26, 1953 to Mary and Wilson Moreland, Barbara lived a life of adventure and love. Her childhood years were spent in Birney, Montana where the family lived in a small cabin and the kids rode horseback to school. She spent junior high in Pennsylvania where Wilson took a job shoeing race horses, and then the family moved back to Wyoming where she graduated from Big Horn High School in 1971.

She attended The National College of Business in Rapid City, South Dakota where she met some of her lifelong friends and her sweetheart, Patrick Guiliano, whom she called “Frog Man.” The two were married on November 30, 1974 and celebrated their 50th anniversary last year. Barb’s spontaneity combined with Pat’s sense of humor made them a great team.

People who knew Barbara would describe her as generous, positive, and open-hearted. She was a mother in all the ways one can be: not just to her children, but to her friends and her friends’ children. She went to great lengths to support her children’s interests. She travelled to the state legislature to passionately–and successfully–advocate for an open enrollment law allowing them to attend schools with orchestra programs. And she took a job that required waking up at three in the morning so that she could pick her kids up from school and take them to their activities.

Her love of art and nature found their way into parenting. Barb was known as the fun creative artsy mom who took kids on hikes in the canyon with sketchbooks, and who playfully joined whenever asked to act in one of the family movies. She found other opportunities to explore art on her own, including working as a sign painter and taking classes in watercolor and alcohol ink.

Barbara also loved to travel. She was often brainstorming new adventures, along with creative ways to make them possible. She offered her house on Home Exchange, allowing her to stay for free in the homes of others, both in the US and abroad. She was fascinated with treehouses, yurts, and other unusual destinations.

She and Pat frequently made the eight hour road trip to Bozeman, Montana to check in on Mike during and after his college years. After Michael and Lina were married, Barb, Pat, and the whole family visited Lina’s home in Sweden. Barbara and her cousin Connie went on many adventures as well, including Zion, Banff, London, Italy, and France. Like her parents, Barbara’s adventurous spirit brought her into contact with all sorts of people and places, leading her to appreciate the great variety to be found in both the natural world and the human experience.

Barbara was loved by her colleagues, neighbors, friends, family, and community. She brought people together, inviting them into her warm presence. She and Pat were tremendous hosts, frequently inviting others into their home for tasty meals and jovial conversation. She welcomed friends from all walks of life, political opinions, and parts of the world. And she showed up for those who were vulnerable, whose decisions rocked other’s boats, and for those who simply needed someone to listen in silence. Her absence will be felt for a long time to come.

Barbara is survived by her sweet and humorous husband Patrick Guiliano; her adoring children Tony and Michael Guiliano; and their loving partners Jonathan Stuart-Moore and Lina Hultin. “Baba” will be forever remembered by her grandchildren, Julian and Lulu, for whom she moved to Durham from her beautiful home in Black Hawk, South Dakota, where she and Pat lived for most of their married life.

She is also survived by her brothers Forest (Susan) Dunning, John (Betty) Moreland, and David Albury; and by her sister Becky Moreland; all of whom she loved dearly and shared many happy memories with. She is preceded in death by her brother, Michael Moreland, her parents, Mary and Wilson Moreland, her sister-in-law, Margo Albury, and her brother-in-law, Chris Guiliano.

In the weeks before Barbara made her “final exit,” as she liked to call it, she dreamed many moments of meaning and joy into existence, starting with a hot air balloon ride at sunset above the North Carolina Piedmont. Michael moved into their townhome from Norway and worked remotely for two months so that he could be present and support Barbara in her final days. Lina joined for one last hurrah, and the whole family celebrated with laughter and tears over good food, stories, family photos and videos, and chocolate. They saw a sunrise at Falls Lake (one of Barbara’s favorite activities), played family soccer with Barbara as “goalie” in her wheelchair, and ended the week with a family parade cruising the townhome circle with music in colorful costumes and crowns. Barbara rode her red scooter while granddaughter Julian drove a pink princess car, everyone laughing and making merry the way Barbara approached her whole life.

Because so many of Barbara’s family and friends live out west, Patrick and family plan to hold a celebration of life in Rapid City in the spring of 2026. A specific date and location will be shared in the coming months. The family has shared photos of Barbara from recent years below along with a funny video from 2013 (when she rescued Tony and Jon on their bicycle trip after Jon discovered he had type 1 diabetes in Moab).

We invite you to share photos to include at the memorial next spring. And we invite those who know each other to convene in the ways Barb lived her life: hiking, drawing, traveling, laughing, and loving. To honor Barbara, Tony will be doing full moon hikes in the coming months and invites you to join them from wherever you are in the world.