There are those whom will always remain just work colleagues and there are those whom you naturally develop a closer connection with as a potential friend. Julie was one of those people for me. Her sincerity will be greatly missed. If there was someone one could count on to provide me an honest opinion on any matter professional or personal Julie was that person. Truly, a great loss.
May her next step in this "ultimate and misunderstood plan of life and death" be deserving of such a great person and spirit!
Your Work Colleague and Friend
Craig
I'll remember living next door to Julie in college and how she always had a smile for everyone. And later Amy and I would love when Julie would come to nyc and we'd go out and drink and laugh. And when she brought Dani with her for the first time, we were so happy to see the two of them so much in love. And visiting them in Barcelona and having them as tour guides was one of the best trips we ever took. I consider myself extremely lucky to have known Julie.
Letter from the Girls [read at the services in Rochester and Barcelona] :
We are a group of 9 girls, most of us : Anu, Sari, Maria, Fran, Debs & I met Julie through working at Agilent. Mari met her way before at university. Silvia lived with Julie for a while , (a recommendation from a co-worker) and finally Kristina, we picked up in a Jazz club on a Saturday night!
Although Debbie & I are no longer living in BCN we went back on Wednesday to be with our friends. We all felt a strong need to be physically close to each other, just to give each other a hug , share our memories and write this eulogy.
Shortly after we all met we started having Girls Nights, not so typical in Spain, but we loved them. As most of us were away from home it was a real mix of nationalities and cultures - like the U.N. except the converstations were no quite on the same level. Typical topics of conversations would be boyfriends (pros & cons), work, food, and babies...in the later years!
Each of us saved the more deep conversations for a more intimate conversation with Julie as her compassion, sympathy and sense of humour seemed often to put things in perspective
Then there’s the love of Julie’s life: Dani.
Dani & Julie shared a lot in common they both love music & movies. As a result they were normally out at a concert or cinema at the weekend. We could see the love between them even when they were out together with us – always having a cuddle or giving each other a special look. Silvia always knew that they would fall for each other – she just had to get them to meet.
They had been together over 2 years and at the recent wedding of Silvia and Joerg the bouquet was thrown but Julie purposely did not catch it as Dani had said they couldn’t afford to get married..... yet ! She explained that traditional says the parents of the bride arrange the wedding, “oh” he said, “then you should have caught it!”
Julie knew all of our families either having met them personally or through stories – and it was the same for us. She was always talking about her family and friends back home and bragging about how cute her nieces & nephews are. After a trip home she would be bursting to tell us about everyone and show us photographs.
As well, back in Barcelona, Julie was one of the first to meet Mari and Xavi's children, Elsa & Max - she bacame their surrogate "Auntie Sulie".
Although Julie loved her life in Barcelona, she also took any opportunity to see new places (finances permitting!) We had taken a number of trips together - Sweden, Finland and Costa Rica.
But during the summer we spent most weekends at the beach, in or nearby Barcelona – Julie typically showing off her new ipod or gadgets and we’d be arguing whose turn it was to play solitaire.
That reminds me that Julie was very competitive when it came to game playing, we started Phase 10 card game nights where Julie hustled us out of 10 euros per game – big money! The thing was that she would give it back to me at the end of the night to pay for a taxi home.
People that knew and loved Julie have described her as
-Full of energy & life
-Always thinking of other people
-Willing to try anything once
-Always got on with what needed to be done
-And of course her smile which has been mentioned so many times.
She was truly a beautiful person – inside & out
As Bonnie wrote to me this week – ´a better friend does not exist in this world´
Our lives have been changed forever. Right now we are all truly heartbroken – there is indeed a physical longing that comes from this emotional loss. We long to hug her and pick up the phone and hear her voice. I pray that with time these scars may heal and we can look back and only have happy thoughts.
Although Julie is no longer with us in body, her spirit and vivacious character will stay with us because we have all been touched from knowing her.
Someone told me a few days ago that a person isn’t truly dead until no-one can remember them anymore. In Julie’s case that means she will live a very long time.
We love you Julie & we always will
I met Julie when I worked at Agilent selling Support Contracts in the UK a number of years ago. She came on board in Barcelona and immediately set about reducing my Salesperson neurosis over the telephone. It was an incredibly busy and complicated time, but her amazing 'can do' attitude, calming influence and brillliant sense of humour made an enormous difference. She spent a short time in the UK and we had some great nights of fun and laughter with Debbie Richards, Maria Jesus, Yvonne et al. I remember laughing until I cried and thinking how much better it would be (for me, at least) if I worked in the same office or indeed in the same country as Julie and her colleagues. The short trips I took to Barcelona were always fun filled too and Julie was just a joy to work with.
We spoke numerous times each day and went through good times, bad times, stressful times and times of amazing hilarity (possibly tinged with hysteria!)
As happens, we lost touch when our jobs changed, yet I remember her with the fondest memories. I think that once you got to know Julie, you knew you would never forget her. Her death has come as such a shock and the feelings of sadness are genuinely heartfelt.
My thoughts and prayers are with Julie's partner, family and the huge number of friends and colleagues. We are all better people for having known Julie and I know she will be looking down on us to make sure we remember to smile again.
Linda
x
I remember well when Julie and I have our sport addictive phase.
First time we had a conversation was at the gym. I saw her before at Agilent, but we never had talked to each other. This day we found out, that we were neighbors and started to make appointments for joining steps classes after work and having dinner together. We often had dinner at her place, having great conversations, a glass of wine and our homemade salads.
I also remember our walks across the park “Niño del Aro” where we tried to find the supposedly bridge, which connects this park with the Park Güell… we have never found it…
One year has passed since I left Barcelona, but I still can remember my farewell dinner with her at a pizzeria she recommended, where we talked about our futures.
I will never forget this unique smile and her “hola guapi” as she used to welcome me.
Dear Julie, thank you for all the moments I had the chance to share with you!
Maria
