doaflip asked: Julie/Julia/Juliette
Oh, this is going to be a sad story.
I had a friend named Julie once. We went to the same temple and were in the same Sunday School class through confirmation. We weren’t close friends because we were in different school districts so we only ever saw each other on Sunday mornings and the occasional Friday night service, and birthday parties and stuff. She had very pretty red hair. I have a picture of her from one of my birthday parties where we were playing charades and she’s acting something out, and her long red hair is in pigtails and she looks super cute.
Anyway, so for our reform temple confirmation happens in 10th grade. After we finished up that year and all the other girls in our class went on a trip to Israel, and for whatever reason Julie and I didn’t go, so we planned to hang out a lot while everyone else was on their trip.
I think we got together once, maybe twice, and then I didn’t hear anything from her for a few weeks. My mom told me Julie’d gotten really sick and was in the hospital. The diagnosis: liver cancer. She died not too long after. She was 16 years old. To this day I don’t understand how something like liver cancer happens to someone that young.
I still remember that her birthday was on February 15. I think about that every year.
