When Julie Thomason was just 19, she told her future husband, Charles Thomason, that her dream for them was to one day have a white house, a Jeep, and two-and-a-half kids — the “half” being a dog. By the time Julie was 31, Charles had made all her dreams come true. They had the house, the car, the dog, a daughter, and on Sept. 1, 2021, they welcomed a son. Tragically, just weeks later, on Sept. 29, Charles, away just one night on a work trip, was killed in a car accident.
“Two days before he passed, I asked him if he was nervous,” said Julie, of Atlanta, now 33. “No one gets everything they want, and it scared me that life was so good. Charles told me not to think like that, but I had an intuition that something bad was about to happen.”
Nothing could have prepared Julie for the shock of losing Charles. They met as students at Dalton High School in 2007 and had a black-tie wedding 10 years later. They were best friends who talked or texted throughout every day, bickered over silly things, and constantly joked around. Charles was charismatic and genuine and took his role as a husband and father seriously. When he died, Julie lost her closest confidante and was instantly thrust into the role of single parent.
