8 minute read
JULIA BALFOUR - "She Was a Manifester"
That Life, That Love, and Oh, That Laugh!
By RONA MANN
Yes, this is a story about a young, talented, unique woman who died much too soon, but the happy part is that she lived. She wasn't just born, grew up, lived, and then died. No, Julia Balfour LIVED! Lived and took no prisoners when it came to living life to the fullest, being happy, and dragging others along on her silly, crazy, beautiful, laugh-filled, purpose-driven journey. Along the way,she not only lived her life to the absolute fullest, always reaching for more,but she taught a lot of others how to live theirs the same way, a way they never thought possible. And if you ask those others whom she pushed to the very core of their beings in order to get them to stretch beyond their reach,develop muscle memory for happiness, and work themselves to the bone physically, mentally, and creatively, they'll tell you they wouldn't have missed the experience for the world. But all of them, every single one of them,miss Julia, and they wanted to talk about it. While most people reading this may never have known her, we assure you, you will after this.
Julia is Julia Balfour, and no, this is neither a grammatical error nor a misprint. Although she died little more than one year ago, her presence is still very much in the present tense and destined to stay that way.
Jenn Hayn, now head of New Business for Julia Balfour, LLC, didn't initially meet Julia when she first wandered into her yoga studio to take a class. "I kept seeing her name all around town, then I got a mailer. I had never done yoga, so I thought I'd try it. I walked in, the instructor was amazing, I fell in love, and cried after my first class." Jenn was so taken that she sent the owner of JUL Yoga, Julia Balfour, a couple of thank you cards. "I told her this has changed my life." Eventually, they became friends - the best of friends -and as the circle of life turns in delicious and serendipitous ways, Jenn now lives in the 480 square foot yoga space that Balfour eventually converted into a tiny apartment. "Julia told me it would be too small for me, but I thought it was perfect," so she surprised me by buying me a washer and dryer." What wonderful ghosts must live within those walls, constantly reminding Jenn to breathe, stretch, and extend herself fully. Jenn continued to take yoga, "sometimes two classes in the same day," and her favorite instructor was Julia herself. "She saw beauty and strength in every student and took them to heights they never would have scaled on their own. One day she came up to me on the mat and said, 'Give me your legs!' Why? She wanted me to stand on my head. I didn't think I could, but when Julia asks, you do it. I did, and I learned to stand on my head with confidence and strength. She was a manifester, she made things happen."
But all this goodness, this talent, this popularity covered a horrible truth. Julia Balfour was going to die. She had known it since she was a toddler when she first was diagnosed with Li-Fraumeni syndrome, an horrendous, inherited genetic sentence that makes one copy of the altered gene in each cell, leaving the afflicted person prone to cancer their whole life. Julia's mother and grandmother had both had this and died, and as a very young child, Julia had her first bout with cancer.
Having had cancer several times subsequently, Julia never let it get her down nor limit anything she did. Although she shared this with a limited number of people throughout her community, she never let it define her; instead, it seemed to empower her to approach everything she did with gusto, creating her trademark raucous laugh, and fostering an attitude that she would live forever.
Logan Galla, a designer at Julia Balfour, LLC first met Julia for his interview more than seven years ago. "I had just published a new portfolio of my work and tweeted it. It got re-tweeted, Julia saw it, and contacted me. The interview lasted 15 minutes before she asked, 'When can you start?' I found out quickly that nothing annoyed Julia more than if even a little thing was wrong with the work. Everything had to be approved by her, and one day when reviewing a simple project I thought was good enough, she sent me home telling me she didn't want to see it again until it was the best thing I'd ever done. She forced me to grow quickly because she believed highly in the abilities of the people on her team and wouldn't settle for anything less."
Julia dressed for success and demanded her team do the same. Denim and sneakers were never allowed. She liked creating an experience for clients by the colorful and beautiful look of her offices, luxurious but never over-the-top accouterments, and even by the remote-controlled, heated, water spraying, bottom drying toilet seat installed in the agency's bathroom.
Kristen Peterson, an Accounts Manager. moved back to her native Connecticut from Philadelphia where she had been a digital project manager for a large company and didn't enjoy the fit. She wanted something creative, and at the time Julia Balfour, LLC didn't have that availability, but eventually, she got the call and garnered an interview with Julia where Kristen became thoroughly "entrenched in her style, beauty, warmth, and inviting manner. I instantly knew I wanted to follow her and go wherever she went." When Peterson became pregnant with her first child and wondered how she would balance what seemed overwhelming, Julia was there. "She never made me feel like I had to make a choice. She told me, "You can kick ass in your profession and also be a present mother." So after Kristen gave birth, the baby became a welcome presence in the day-to-day Julia Balfour, LLC workplace!
Shay Sweet, in charge of Operations for Julia Balfour, LLC, explains Julia always called herself a "shooting star" because they burn bright and extinguish quickly. "Julia knew her time was limited and referred to it as, "the hand I was dealt, no big deal." But in the meantime, Shay says, "there was a lot of work to do, but she always made it fun." Starting 3 1/2 years ago as her assistant, Julia warned in the interview, "Get ready,. I'm a lot of work." Sweet went on to echo what so many others have, "She was a visionary. She always made you feel loved and changed each one of our lives. I'm not the same person for knowing her."
"It's hard not to have a good story about Julia," Holly Johnson says. A designer who often works in tandem with Logan, Holly's been a member of the team for 7 1/2 years after being recruited straight out of college. Julia had accepted an offer to speak at Sacred Heart University, inspired everyone, and as she walked through the halls looking at the work of the design students, she kept fixating on Johnson's. "She started me as an intern while I was still in college, then it led to this full-time position."
Whether you're speaking with a member of "Julia's team" who still make the award-winning agency so unique, outside the box, and over-the-top successful; or a former yoga student, or a member of the community, they all remember Julia Balfour for having a larger-than-life personality and a laugh that should have been bottled and sold.
Logan Galla tells a story about members of the team being on an Amtrak train out of Old Saybrook bound for a client presentation in New Jersey. "It was the end of the day and other people in the bar car we shared were primarily quietly working on their laptops." Not for long! After a few glasses of wine for Julia and a beer or two for the others, the sheer joy of being alive spilled over until the entire car rocked with the sound of her infectious laughter. "She didn't care how loud her laugh was or if she was supposed to be quiet," Galla added. "We just followed her energy because she usually was always having a good time."
Julia Balfour will not come again...then again, she never really left; and those who knew her whether as a client, a well-loved member of the team, or on the yoga mat, know well that if they cock their heads, somewhere in the distance perhaps on a commuter train, in an office, on the mat at a yoga studio, or anywhere there are people, they may just hear that laughter reverberating. Louder and more raucous than anyone else. Filled with wild abandon, filled with the pure joy of having lived life to the fullest and loved every single minute with no regrets. Just ask anyone.
"It's such a good story."
A damned good one.
