What I Have Learned From Julie's Life

Julie Andrews is one of my favorite actresses (right up there with Audrey Hepburn and Emma Thompson!) I'm not sure exactly what it is about her, or her acting that draws me in, but it does. I always felt like I could identify with many of the characters she played in her various movies. Her role as Maria Von Trapp, in Sound of Music, is of course of special note. :)

However, there definitely always is much more to a person than just what they do for a living, right? The same is true for Julie; she was more than just her acting and singing careers.  I knew that she played great roles and was a wonderful singer, but I knew next to nothing about her own life, and the 'real' Julie Andrews!

    That's why I ordered this book (only $4!) off of Barnes & Nobles to read. Home, is Julie's memoirs of her early years from her birth to age 28. What first struck me as reading was that she did not come from a 'perfect home'! I guess I just always assumed that Julie Andrews ...I don't know, came from this perfect, happy-family dream world! Something like the Trapp family! Well, that was not the case at all; her parents, Barbara Ward Wells and 'Ted' Wells, both came from very poor, abusive backgrounds and met while working in the vaudeville/nightclub business.
     Once married they had two kids, Julie and her brother Johnny, before her mother left her father for another man (Ted Andrews) less than a decade after marriage. Eventually, when Julie was around 12 years old, her parents divorced and her parents went their separate ways. The resulting years were spent between the two families: her Mum and large, load, rough 'Pop', and her Dad and new timid, but kind wife. 

   Two things happened as Julie neared her teen years: Her Mum and Pop decide to change her name, from her christened name Julia Elizabeth Wells, to Julie Andrews. Julie was apparently very upset and averse to the change at first, but it stuck anyway. Secondly, her 'Pop' began giving her singing lessons and then later sponsored her to attend lesson by Madam Lilian Stiles-Allen. Turns out.... Julie had an amazing voice!

And the rest, is history basically. :)

     I thought it was particularly neat to see the pictures of her as just a young, slight girl meeting young Queen Elizabeth. Julie Andrews was & is such a special lady. A common theme I find in her life story is forgiveness, humbleness, and perseverance. Whenever people hurt her, or whenever she got praised, or whenever things got particularly rough, she responded in the same way, every time: by pressing on with a smile and hope in her heart. Now maybe that sounds like 'sentimental fluff', but I think it's a valid claim.

The optimists are the ones who keep us all from getting too bogged down with life and forgetting to LIVE.

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Resources:
Favorite movies of Julie Andrews - Sound of Music, The Thoroughly Modern Millie, Mary Poppins.
Websites: http://www.julieandrewsonline.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Andrews