Natalia Julius

March 29, 2003 - July 30, 2024

Natalia Ana Julius, born at her home in San Diego on March 29, 2003, died at her home in La Mesa, CA on July 30, 2024. She took her life after a decade of mental health struggles. Yet for most of that time, especially the last several years, her love, kindness, service to others, and humor masked the pain she was experiencing. Everyone fortunate enough to know Natalia knew her as a gift-giver, a comforter, a jokester, a radiant beauty, an artist. She loved her friends and family, her work and co-workers. She reveled in shared experiences, adventures, life celebrations, movies, and every type of silliness. She took great pleasure in a morning coffee drink, a late-night burrito, baking treats for others, and any opportunity to eat out with friends or family. She delighted in finding old treasures in thrift shops, experimenting with new makeup, and spending alone time with her pets, nature, music, and creative arts and crafts. As we struggle to reconcile how we saw her with her final act, it is tempting to say it was all a performance. But it was not. She was authentic in her love for us and in her wonder of the world around her. But her mind was not well and did not allow her ultimately to accept that love and wonder as more real than the dark thoughts that shrouded her mind. And in her selfless nature she believed it best not to share that darkness with the rest of us. Because of that, the world is a dimmer place. In the journal she kept in her final weeks, she wrote, “I’d like to die in nature. To take my last breath in its peace. Return to the soil.” To honor her wishes Natalia’s body will be transformed into living soil that will infuse her presence into the places she loved. A celebration of Natalia’s life will take place following this process in the fall. Natalia is survived by her parents, Corie and Jim, her older siblings, Zee and Rosa, and grandparents William Julius and Diana Collins. She loved and was beloved by her extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins, many of whom she visited with in the final weeks of her life during a visit to Enterprise, Oregon. She will also be missed terribly by her best friend Laura Burger, her large community of friends in the San Diego area, and her coworkers at TJ Maxx in Santee. Natalia’s final message to us concluded with this: Please be good to yourself. Please be good to each other. Live in joy. I love you. I will always love you.