Welcome to ‘Julie Writes’

Welcome to ‘Julie Writes’, the next step in my journey since completing the memoir ‘Identity Reclaimed: Echoes of an Adoptee’. 

At sixty years of age, I dared at last to uncover the truth about my past and climbed aboard an emotional roller coaster, encountering biological family I never knew I had which brought a great many challenges. Friends told me I was brave to do this, yet I was totally unprepared for what I’d undertaken and had much to reappraise and learn. I began to connect with an angry child deep inside of me and learned to recognise that the only person who could help me now was myself.

One way was to tell my story. This proved to be immensely liberating, even though I didn’t know how it would end, as the real time narrative continued to unfold. Then, one day, things came to a head, and I knew what I would write. It was a time of great turmoil, tempered by putting virtual pen to virtual paper and performing piano music, which helped me to reach deep inside of myself. This ending I called the Postlude, and it brought me to a place where I could claim my own power, and not fall victim to circumstance.

I’d been to see a therapist who was adopted herself, and about my age. During one of my sessions (aka rants) with her, she unlocked what lay at the root of things. Identity. Yes – a question I’d once posed to my (adoptive) mum when a child. ‘Who am I?’ It formed the basis of the memoir, and inspired the title. When I finished it I knew the answer.

Thus began a life of self-empowerment and desiring to share my story and my thoughts with others. I’m still learning and sometimes I backslide. But I’ve moved forward into a new era and want to lend my voice to those of other adoptees out there.