Julie: A Story of Resilience and Survival

Julie

A strong women that rose up from a very sad story. Julie worked for me for about five years.  She came from a small town and recently relocated to escape a family tragedy. Julie was a single mom of a young daughter.  But Julie was so much more than that. She stood tall at 5’9”, brown wavy hair and a strong jaw.  She was smart, energetic and yet soft and comforting.

Julie had experienced such a tragedy. I am not sure that I would have been able to go on if it had been me.  She was married and had two boys and a girl. The eldest boy was three and the youngest two months.  The family went to sleep on a Thursday night. Julie had woken up Friday morning and they all seemed to have the flu or food poisoning. They went back to bed. Julie woke up Sunday morning, being touched from what seemed like a hand above. She ran thru the house to find only her daughter still alive. Her husband and two sons had passed. They had a gas leak.  The furnace had just been repaired the week before. Tragically, it was not repaired correctly.

Julie explained that they claimed the boys passed because boys have more muscle than fat. The gas had destroyed their ability to survive. She and her daughter had more body fat, so they survived. An unimaginable tragedy.  It was hard not to cry just looking at Julie.

In addition to that tragedy and prior to it, Julie had been struggling with her husband’s dishonesty. She found a bag of cocaine in his jacket pocket and she had threatened to leave him. Julie now experienced not only survivor’s guilt. She also felt remorse about one of the last conversations she had with this man she thought she knew.

It is meeting people like Julie that really puts life into perspective. Many people are experiencing very tough times. Yet, they get up each day and face whatever comes their way. My heart feels heavy today when I think of Julie and her daughter and the pain they had to endure.

I hope that you can take from this story gratitude. Gratitude that you are still alive, gratitude if you have not had to experience such a tragic loss. Then from that gratitude, spread kindness. You never know when the person you are talking to may be a Julie.