Julia Oehrle is an angel who went to St. Joseph School.  That is how we know her.  Her family tells us stories about when she wasn't always an angel but you'll have to ask them about that.  She was eight years, seven months and two days old when she left St. Joe's, her family and friends on December 2, 2001.   

On February 2, 1997, on a Sunday morning at Children's Hospital, Julia was diagnosed with cancer and on December 2 at 3:30 in the afternoon Julia became an angel in heaven. 

We would like to tell you a little about Julia through pictures from her family and teachers plus letters and drawings from her classmates.

The pictures above are from Julia's first grade.  She celebrated her birthday, drew the globe on the playground with chalk, and enjoyed "Blessing of the Pets" day (see our We've Been Busy page for more details of this day).  Pilgrim Julia is enjoying her feast and she looks happy just waiting in the hall at school.  Last, but not least, Julia is just being silly.

Julia was strong on the outside while enduring numerous stays in the hospital, treatments and chemotherapy.  She would go to school every day that she could.  Sometimes she would look great like the photos above, and sometimes she would look very tired.  If you read this and come away with a sense of strength and determination then you have received Julia's message.

For the sake of preserving the artists' work there were only very minor alterations made to the pictures above. In case they are hard to see the first one reads as follows:  Julia you are...a trooper, great at smiling, you like pizzas, a good friend, good at laughing, you like polar bears, . Rebecca I will miss You   The second drawing was by Alex who knew that Julia LOVED Mexican food!  The third illustration is of Julia's other favorite, small, frozen, 33 cent pizzas.

Recipe for a Cool Girl Named Julia
by Evan

A good smile, cool curly hair, cool blue eyes, a nice face, little legs to run fast, little arms to be able to squeeze through small places, cool clothes, cool shoes, little fingers to squeeze hard, little feet to not hurt them because their also rugh, strong knees to lift up big things and a really nice girl in the hole third grade.

Dear Julia,
I will miss you very much.  I will be your friend no matter what.  I know that you are with God now.  I will pray to you as much as I can.  I am a very lucky person because I still have a very good friend.  I will see you later.
                                                                                                                    Love,
                                                                                                                    Rebecca

These are mere samplings of the multitude of expressions of love the children created after the students were told of Julia's death.