Happy Birthday to our Julie! Julie has been part of the Egan family really since 1989 when she and Erik were freshmen at BYU. They were in the same ward and had been assigned to be in the same family home evening group. Erik was assigned to be the "father"and Julie the "mother" of the group. Our family was living in Atlanta in the fall of that year and so our first introduction to Julie and her room mates was over the phone as Erik told us all about the girls in his "family."
Our family had the good fortune of being transfered to Salt Lake City with a promotion for Bob in IBM. We moved to our home in Sandy in January of 1990. We were so happy to be closer to Erik and to meet his new friends and "family".
Julie quickly became our family favorite! Even when Erik was serving his mission, Julie was part of our family. I just thought that she loved all of us.....I had no idea that either she or Erik had anything more than a friendship going on. Julie and Heidi would come to our home on reading days before final exams, mostly for a break (I really don't remember much reading going on)! There were times when I needed to travel with Bob, and Julie was always more than happy to come for the weekend and stay with our kids.
In December of 1990, Christian was the Santa Claus in the 5th grade school play and Bob was out of town on business. Julie and Heidi came up for reading days and attended the play with us. While we were in the school, it started snowing and in that hour and a half it snowed so much that we couldn't even tell which car was ours. There must have been over a foot of snow covering everything. We finally found our car and made it home, and then the fun began. We spent the next couple of hours playing in the snow all over our neighborhood. The snow continued to fall, and everything was quiet except for the laughter and fun we were having. It was well after 10:00 by the time we quit. It was a magical evening for all of us.
I remember one day in August in 1992 that Julie stopped by to visit. She told me that day that she had always wanted to marry a guy like Erik. I took that as quite a compliment. I knew that Erik was a great guy and would be a wonderful husband and I was glad that his friend Julie recognized his wonderful qualities. She told me then that she was quite serious with another guy. I was so excited for her and wished her the best. I had no idea that Julie had ever had feelings for Erik or that Erik's heart would be broken when Julie wrote to him about her new plans. When Erik's favorite missionary companion, Bryan Abbott came to visit us after he got home from his mission, we found out just how devestated Erik had been when he received Julie's letter.
I am not sure what happened between that August and when Erik got home in November, but I do know that after Erik got home we had a small open house for him the night we arrived, and Erik's regret was that he "didn't get to spend enough time with Julie" that night. Five months later Julie and Erik were married and the rest is history!
Julie has always been a good friend to our whole family. Robby was 4 years old when we moved to Utah. I am not sure that he remembers our family without Julie in it. Kelly was in 4th grade, Christian in 5th grade, Betsy was in 8th grade, Emily was a Sophmore and Ben was a Jr. in High School. Julie came from a big family and she knew how to relate to each one of our kids. Ben was on his mission when Erik and Julie got married. He didn't want to miss Erik's wedding, but he knew Julie and that helped missing the wedding easier on him. Julie was at BYU to help our family members adjust to college. She was there for Ben and Jamie, and when Emily started BYU she was so happy to have Julie there as a big sister and friend.
Julie has been a blessing in our family from the very first meeting. We admire her many talents and her "dang creativity". She loves her family and adores each child, making sure that as much as possible their varied needs are all met. Her love and organization for her family keeps a large busy family glued together. She adores my son Erik and supports him in his work and Church callings and nothing means more to me than that. Julie loves that Lord and does all she can to please Him and teach her family with Erik what they need to know to be an eternal family. What more could this mother and grandmother ask for.
Happy Birthday Julie......and another 50 or 60 more!!
I love you, Julie!
Kathy Egan
