Searchers in the Philippines found Julia's body today in the northern mountain area where she had gone hiking.
Her friends and I'm sure her family had been bracing themselves for this conclusion. Yesterday, a police official suggested she might have fallen off a cliff.
But the news today suggested it may be far more horrific. Her body had been buried, suggesting a criminal act and not unsteady footing took her life, although authorities said its possible debris from a fall covered her.
Julia was an amazing woman. I met her soon after I moved to New York, when I freelanced for People Magazine. She quickly took me under her wing and we became fast friends. When she got sacked from People (as did I and some of my other favorite people at the magazine), I introduced her to a friend of mine at FOXNews.com, where she got hired. Then I brought her into the ABCNews.com family, though she was jettisoned with a round of layoffs. Later, she got me in to see the executive editor at Star Magazine, though it wasn't the right fit. When I moved into my no-pet apartment in New York, she adopted my cat Sammy.
She kept pursuing a career in news, no matter how many bosses told her to get lost. She was the best kind of journalist, the kind that always asked questions, that was never satisfied. It was this quality that didn't curry favor with her employers as she applied the same tenacity to her work environment as she did the job itself.
So I was surprised with her plan to join the Peace Corps more than two years ago. But I was so proud of her and admired her commitment to changing her life 180 degrees. Few people would have taken that chance. I don't think I would have.
Julia always wanted more. A few years ago, when she began to worry she wouldn't find the right guy and she wouldn't be able to have the family she wanted, she asked me if I'd be interested in fathering her child. She said she didn't want me to be just a donor, she wanted me to be a dad and we would raise this child together. She even had a name if it was a boy, Jack. I can't remember why she chose it but I liked it immediately, it was my dad's name.
I couldn't do it, it wasn't the right time, I was still too involved with me. I wonder now what were things would have stood if I had said yes, if I had started an "alternative" family arrangement with Julia. Would she still have joined the Peace Corps or would she be at home in Brooklyn getting Jack ready for pre-school? A foolish question on my part, I know, but still I ask it.
At least Julia got the chance to reinvent herself, to forge her own path, to create her own reality. That's more than many people get to do in a lifetime.
I will miss you Julia. We all will.
