Extracted from Julie's Service - Composed by Lynette Olsen Clelebrant
Joyce and Tom Ross were residing in Coburg with their daughter Christina and their son Bill as they awaited the birth of their third child. Born in the Vaucluse Hospital on Moreland Road on the eighteenth of November, 1953 the newborn baby girl was given the names of Julie Ann. I have been assured by Christina that as the baby in the family, Julie was definitely spoilt.
When Julie was only three years of age, Tom transferred with the railways to northern Victoria, to the small rural community of Ultima. There wasn’t a great deal of money in those early days, but Joyce made all of the children’s’ clothes and they certainly managed to get by. With cousins living on a large dairy property at Tyntynder, the Ross family often visited for Sunday lunch.
Julie commenced her schooling in Ultima, but shortly after beginning school, the family relocated to Maryborough, where Julie attended the Maryborough East State School before enrolling at Maryborough High School. Julie was not an academic student, but her reports consistently spoke of the effort Julie put into her studies. On the other side of school life, Julie excelled as both a swimmer and a diver and held the title of School Champion. When it came down to it though, all Julie really wanted to do was look after babies. Completing Year 11, Julie left school to complete her training as a mothercraft nurse.
As they grew up, the Ross children effectively had two sets of parents; for Joyce’s and Tom’s good friends Phyllis and Allan Willmott featured quite prominently in their lives. Ian, Frank and Richard also became like brothers to Christina, Bill and Julie and both families still talk about the mouse plague that Ian and Julie tried to eradicate, by stomping all over the mice.
Julie commenced her nursing career at the Tweddle Baby Hospital and she absolutely loved the role, for she was doing what she had always wanted to do, she was looking after babies. Julie actually preferred to work the night shift because then it was just the babies in her care, not their parents as well.
Life for Julie at that stage was not all work and no play. Meeting Paul Dearing, Julie and he were married in 1973, when Julie was just twenty years of age. Soon afterwards they were living in St Albans, an area with an eclectic mix of nationalities. As Julie has done all her life, she made friends with neighbours, a young couple and their baby, who happened to be from Egypt and who had very limited command of the English language. In order to foster the friendship and make communication with the neighbours a little easier, Julie went out and purchased a series of cassette tapes so that she could learn Egyptian Arabic. Going the extra mile was the sort of thing Julie would do for any friend and every friend of Julie’s thought that they were her best friend, because she made every friend feel special.
Unfortunately, Julie’s marriage to Paul did not last and they each went their separate ways. Julie did eventually get on with life after divorce. She had her good friends Julie, Raylene and Denise to help her with that though and the girls ensured that Julie still had a social life.
Invited to a cocktail party on a ship docked at Station Pier, Julie and her friends enjoyed the evening, but Julie was still a little hesitant to become involved with anyone else. Kym Aldenhoven happened to be at the same cocktail party having just come out of the navy and also a single man again. Kym wasn’t quite as hesitant to find love again and Julie had certainly caught his eye.
Sometime after midnight, Kym finally had a dance with Julie and then he escorted Julie and her friends off the ship. The following day, the girls were having another party and Kym managed to get an invitation. Julie did actually give Kym her phone number, so after Kym returned to Sydney, there were quite a few interstate telephone calls. At the time Julie and Kym met, Julie was still grieving the death of her mother and shortly after meeting Kym, Julie’s father became quite ill. Kym returned to Melbourne to support Julie during her father’s illness and the rest, as they say is history.
Julie took a month long holiday in Sydney, only to discover that she was pregnant; and while she would have been happy to move to Sydney, it made greater sense for Kym to relocate to Julie’s flat in Sunshine, here in Melbourne. They then lived for a time on Osborne Street in Williamstown before buying their home on River Street, Newport, where together they have raised Sam. Julie was a mother and caring for her own baby, but Julie did much more than that for she was the nurturer of many of the neighbourhood children and she became a guide to several as they matured through their teenage years.
Julie loved her shows on television (those who knew her well, would never interrupt) and she loved going to the movies. During the school holidays, it was nothing for Julie and Sam to see four movies a week and Sam never missed going to Disney on Ice every year. Most importantly though, Julie was mum to Sam.
Julie’s professional life saw her become a personal nanny after being at Tweddle for some time, but then she commenced working at the Williamstown Hospital where she would remain for fifteen years, until being made redundant.
It seems that then Julie had thoughts of a career change. She enrolled at Footscray T.A.F.E. to undertake studies in hospitality. She may have been studying hospitality, but she was still being the caring nurse. The other students came to refer to Julie as ‘mum’ as she did what she had always done, she nurtured others. Julie returned to her passion of nursing at the Mercy before working in the Freemason’s Hospital in the Special Care Nursery; but it didn’t matter where she worked, for she gave completely of herself to care about others.
Delighted to be ‘mum’ to Kym’s sons Matthew, Craig and Shaun, who visited each Christmas; Julie was thrilled when Matthew and Craig both made it possible for her to be a grandmother with the births of Samantha, Lachlan and J.
Julie was a hoarder. She kept mementoes of anything and everything that mattered in her life, mementoes of good times and special memories that she never wanted to throw away. She certainly never threw away any friends, regardless of circumstances in life. To Julie, a friend was a friend forever.
Julie had a very serious addiction. She was a shopaholic; but Julie was a shopaholic with a difference for she was a bargain-hunting shopaholic. As Christmas approached each year, Julie never had to go out to do the Christmas shopping. She had it stashed away in every nook and cranny in the house – gifts she bought when they were on special, sometimes with someone particular in mind, but not always.
Throughout her life, Julie has always kept herself active. She played social netball in the early nineties, but arthritis soon put an end to that. She rode her bicycle to Williamstown to buy the groceries and for many years, she walked every morning for an hour.
Diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2009, Julie underwent major surgery, but somehow she bounced back in no time at all. They do say that attitude has a great deal to do with recovery. Julie handled this situation as she did most situations, for she had quite a simple philosophy: ‘You’re born, you die and everything else in between is life – get on with it!’
As she has always done, Julie got on with life. She continued to see others as in greater need, donating clothing to Diabetes Australia three or four times a year and she continued to keep a massive stash of chocolate in the house – just in case someone needed a chocolate fix.
Getting on with life, Julie’s usual walk on Wednesday last week, was not usual at all. Having previously experienced a pulmonary embolism and survived, it is likely that this time it was more serious. Because you could set your watch by Julie’s walk, Kym became concerned when she hadn’t returned at the usual time and she wasn’t answering her mobile.
Fortunately, a couple of cyclists found Julie after she collapsed and they had an ambulance on the spot in no time at all. Unfortunately though, there was nothing that could be done, despite the ambulance officer’s best efforts.
