Born in Toronto on November 28th 1980, Julie grew up in an apartment in Thorncliffe Park, with her mother Margaret, father Mark, and sister Jennifer. When she was 8 her family moved to Burlington where she would go to Assumption High School and meet her lifelong friends Al, Gerard, Paula and Kevin.

Julie’s sister Jennifer contracted tuberculosis as an infant and as a result became developmentally challenged. The habit of caring for others was deeply ingrained in Julie’s personality, and she showed great empathy, affection, and a motherly touch to those around her.

Julie was genuinely interested in people, and the details of their lives. When she asked you questions, you knew she cared about the answers. She remembered hundreds of birthdays, even before Facebook reminders. Julie made people feel good about themselves, and effortlessly created connections even with people she had just met; she would simply talk to you until you loosened up. On one occasion at a grocery, she heard a British accent behind her in line, and over the next 20 minutes this older man revealed details about his life and childhood that he never expected to tell a complete stranger.

As much as she enjoyed people, Julie liked the spotlight to be on others, rather than herself. She was compulsively generous, never showing up somewhere without a gift for the host. As easy as she found giving, she had a hard time taking, and often didn’t consider her own feelings and needs, which sometimes allowed unscrupulous people to take advantage of her.

Though she knew how to make people feel comfortable and reveal their innermost secrets, her friendship was never given, it was earned. Julie guarded her own secrets ferociously, and if you were stubborn enough to make it past her defences then you were rewarded with a devoted and selfless friend.

Julie was passionate about food. Her famous annual borscht party brought her varied circles of friends together to gulp down a giant pot of her beefy, tangy cabbage borscht in the tiny second floor apartment she shared with her roommate and close friend Evan. An occasion was never required for cake, or ice cream, or freshly baked Korean walnut cakes from the shop down the street.

Julie saw the world with the wondrous eyes of a child. She would obsess over newly discovered ideas and knowledge: She wanted to learn it all. Her favourite subjects were sociology and history, but her fascinations ranged from astronomy, languages (Italian and Russian), veganism, hunting, skateboarding, playing guitar, soccer, typewriters, whales, rare books, photography, stained glass, animals, screenwriting and comedy.

Julie would submerse herself in new subjects, and her excitement would compel you to come along for the ride. You could forget the world with her, listening to her questions and thirst for answers felt like being a child again.

Julie was a woman of extremes. Her heart and mind fought between the call of independence and a longing to feel loved – a battle that was never fully won. But no matter which side was winning, you always cheered her on. She struggled to find lasting love, but experienced several significant and loving long-term relationships over the years. Her relationships with partners Jason, Matthew, and close friend Nathaniel, were important and life changing for Julie.

She had few of the advantages that many around her grew up with, but you would never know it. She was articulate and possessed a wide vocabulary and a genuine thirst for knowledge. Julie could have been a professional writer if she had chosen to. She could get a job interview by simply phoning a company, and one visit later she was hired. That’s one of the remarkable things about Julie. Everything good in her life, she made for herself.

Over the past 7 years she lived in the Annex, from College and Rushholme to Clinton and Harbord. She would spend her free time in used bookstores like The Monkey’s Paw, exploring coffee shops, cooking, listening to music, gazing at the stars, taking photos, wandering the city, and spending time with her friends.

In April 2014 Julie was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. After months of chemotherapy and radiation, her cancer had gone into remission. She took the opportunity to travel to Victoria, BC, New Mexico and New York City. During this time, her employer, Chisholm, was extremely supportive of her, and many co-workers rallied behind her fight.

In 2017 Julie was accepted to the Photojournalism program at Loyalist College, and made plans to attend in the fall. She talked passionately about telling stories through photos, and making a new career out of it. Her view was “you gotta do what you love doing while you’re still alive”.

In May 2017, Julie was out driving when she realized she couldn’t see clearly out of one eye. She grew more disoriented and eventually went to a hospital, where a CT scan revealed a large brain tumour. Doctors at Toronto Western Hospital removed the tumour and Julie began another aggressive course of radiation. No one could tell her how long she had, but with great hope she was told “don’t blow through your savings just yet”. She celebrated her life with her many friends while she recovered with her parents.

When Julie’s tumour was removed, her first concern was connecting all the people in her life together with one another. Julie treasured connections between friends more than anything.

In October, Julie began having trouble walking, and went back to the hospital for more scans. There it was discovered the cancer had spread to her spine. Her close friends Mina and Deanna devoted themselves to taking care of her during her stay at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Once her many friends learned of her stay in the hospital, Julie found she had so many visitors that she had little time to rest. Surrounded by her friends and family, Julie kept her spirits up despite her rapid decline over the last month of her life.

We were all deeply saddened to lose someone who was such a bright light in all of our lives, someone in the prime of her life.