My friend Julie

As I have started to come to the realization that my friend Julie is not coming back I have decided that I want to remember her in a positive light, not in the dark place she was in when tragedy struck. So I am here to remember some of the wonderful memories. For those of you who knew her you may laugh along, for those of you who don't, lets just say you missed out on one of the most wonderful woman I have ever met. Tears are streaming down my face as I write this but I have to have some way to remember and I welcome any other memories anyone else wants to share on here. RIP Julie 5/30/12.

Bunco party at Jodi's house, all the ER girls

When I walked into work the first time that Julie was working in the ER at General Hospital I can still hear in my head the first thing she said to me. "Your Greg's daughter? Wow you are a lot prettier than I thought you would be...hahaha (picture Julie laughing here and you will know she was completely serious, you may also be laughing because her laugh was completely contagious)! She took me under her wing after this comment and taught me all I could learn in the short amount of time that I worked with her. I looked up to her as someone I strived to be in life. I just loved how smart she was and how successful she was and I was inspired by the fact that she believed  in me as much as she did. She would always tell me that I was smarter than her at my age and that if I wanted to be a nurse practitioner than I should just do it now and get school out of the way. She supported me in everything I did and encouraged me to better myself.

I will never forget the first code blue that was called overhead while I was working with her, and just remember I was only a nurse for about a week at this time. It was called to the CT room and she literally had to push me through the doors, shuffling her feet behind me. First off I didn't know where the CT room was yet and second off she made everything such an adventure, I couldn't get over her enthusiasm for all things challenging. Thankfully it was a false alarm and we laughed the rest of the day about me really running around aimlessly frightened!

Kill and Grill at Underhill's house, playing with Brad's bird!

I will never forget the time that she showed up at my house when I was so sick with strep throat. Of course I was totally stubborn so I wasn't going to go see a doctor and my temperature was so high. Her and Jeff just made me take some Tylenol and she made me come in to pediatrics (where she was working with Kay Henderson doing her Masters and I worked with Kay as her nurse) and get a strep screen and antibiotics. She really took care of me when she knew that I was miserable. I also loved working as her nurse when she was working with Kay in pediatrics. She just had confidence in me and didn't treat me any differently than she normally did, it felt like she respected me and that was refreshing to experience. The 3 of us had fun that day working together.


We had the best times outside of work also. Boating with most of the girls from the ER and their husbands. It was one of the best days I can remember with her. We tubed and drank and laughed all day long. We had fun teasing Jeff that none of the life jackets fit over his belly and we laughed at some inappropriate humor (although Gregg missed it every time, everyone who was there knows what I mean!) We always talked about doing that again but as time went by and life got in the way it never happened again. If we every go out to the river as a group again I'm sure it will not be the same.I remember Jeff's 50th birthday party at their house. It was so much fun just hanging out and opening funny presents, of course talking about stories from the ER.

I will never forget one of my bachelorette parties, in particular the one that my co-workers took me too. Yep ChipNDales in the Tri Cities. We carpooled up and had a blast, basically laughing at the men onstage. Needless to say we didn't think that they were sexy, we treated it as a comedy more than anything. So much fun. And then she also came to my Walla Walla bachelorette party. I can honestly say she was one of the friends that truly tried to show up to everything that she could to support me and what I was doing even if she knew that she wouldn't know anyone there. It meant the world to me. The same thing happened when she came to my work baby shower. She made me the most snugly blanket for Riley and made time between her two jobs even though she didn't work there anymore to come see and support me.

I have to force myself to remember the good times and how much fun we had together because if I go the other direction it is too painful to think about. I am devastated that I won't ever see her again, I am devastated for her family and friends and I really can't imagine knowing that she isn't there anymore. I feel as though I didn't take enough advantage of the time that I had with her but I am grateful for every moment that I did spend with her. As time goes by and hopefully while my memory of her is still strong I will try to revisit this post and post more stories of our time together, I just don't want to forget anything and I know that is impossible.

Patrick and Julie at our wedding!

Out dancing with all the girls