Deb Flickinger

I had the privilege of working with Julie at Gard & Gerber (now Gard Communications). By the time I started working there in 2000, I knew of Julie just through the network of people I knew throughout the community. Julie and I worked on several projects together, but the one that sticks in my mind is the strategic marketing approach we did for the Oregon Repertory Singers. Julie took the first stab at the draft and to be honest, it was all over the place. But, she was so willing and accepting to let me make sweeping changes and together we worked through it until it was right. At once frustrating and yet satisfying, when I think of Julie that's the project I think about. Years after we'd both left Gard, I would run into her occasionally, and her greetings were always effusive and authentic. She wanted to know how I was doing, what I was doing and if there were others around, she'd so kindly extoll that I was "fucking great to work with" and "saved her bacon" on that ORS project.It was funny, the day Julie passed, I happened to be talking about her to my sister. My husband had randomly met Larry Colton at the Hollywood Fred Meyer (our car has a Dodgers license plate holder and my husband had on his Dodger T-shirt and Colton happened to walk past our car going into the store, took a long look at our plate holder and then was waiting for Terry in the entrance). Of course, we learned his connection to Literary Arts and Wordstock, and I exclaimed to Terry, "Oh, he must know Julie Mancini!" When I was relating the story to my sister, I talked about the connection with Julie, describing her as wildly extroverted and a force that everyone in our community knew. Another friend and I talked about it a couple of days later, right before we learned of her death. It seemed like a divine coincidence, that Julie was so prominent on my mind as her spirit transcended to another realm. Please accept my condolences and also my thanks for the opportunity to share. I share your sorrow and wrap you in comfort and healing love