Julie from Ashland, Oregon

How Julie Met Her Husband

Interviewer: Hello! I am Tess interviewing Julie at Maple Ridge in Ashland, Oregon. Julie, I have heard you talk a lot about your late husband and your life together. Can we start with how you guys met from the very beginning and when you got married?

Julie: Yes, I can. Actually, I had a boyfriend. I was a senior in high school; I had a boyfriend who introduced me to him and that was my boyfriend’s mistake. So, I met him through my boyfriend!

Interviewer: So where did you go from there? So, you guys became boyfriend and girlfriend?

Julie: Yes.

Interviewer: And when did you get married? How long after meeting did you get married?

Julie: Probably a good year and I graduated from high school early at sixteen. Married him the same year, 1956 December the 19^th. In 1956 we got married.

Interviewer: When you were sixteen or seventeen?

Julie: Seventeen, so I was married very early, and we got along great. We were together for sixty-five years. Married in 1956 and in 1960 we came to know the Lord as our savior and that changed our plans. We ended up selling our home in Boulder Creek, California moving to Portland, Oregon going to seminary. I went to bible school and that put us in Brazil and that’s how our marriage started.

Julie - Our Children

Interviewer: How many children did you and your husband have?

Julie: We had three boys, who were born in the United States. When we went to Brazil, they were 8, 10 and 12. Then in Brazil we had a baby girl, so we had three boys and a girl and when we came home from Brazil after a good number of years after the job that they had my husband take, we ended up pastoring a church in Hawaii.

While in Hawaii, we became foster parents and we were able to adopt another little boy, who was precious. So, we ended up with three biological boys, our daughter and an adopted son.

Interviewer: Wow, how old was the little boy when you adopted him?

Julie: Well, when we got him, he was only a couple of months old and only weighed a couple of pounds. He has already been mistreated during his mother’s pregnancy with drugs and things like that so anyway… when we got him, we adopted him after we already had him for a couple of years. So he was about 2 to 3 years old when we adopted him.

How Julie's Husband Became the Director to the Mission

Interviewer: Well that brings me to the next question. Can you talk about living in Brazil with your family? I would also love for you sing happy birthday in Portuguese.

Julie: (laughs) Well we loved Brazil. We really loved Brazil, and we had plans of going back. We were there for four years, came home for what they call furlough. The man who was the northwest director for our mission suddenly died. The mission asked my husband to take his place which meant we did not go back to Brazil which was very very sad.

Julie Sings Happy Birthday in Portuguese

Interviewer: You can still speak pretty good Portuguese, right?

Julie: Well, yeah.

Interviewer: Well, I know you can sing in Portuguese Happy Birthday. Do you want to do that?

Julie: Sure!

Interviewer: Okay whenever you’re ready.

Julie: Okay, well, it’s happy birthday time!

Parabéns a você,

Nesta data querida,

Muitas felicidades,

Muitos anos de vida.

Interviewer: Wooo! Okay that was great, thank you!

Transcription and Audio Edit by Samantha Alcaraz