Remembering Julie Amedio, one of our first Squawker readers

This month marks the fourth anniversary of Subway Squawkers. And Yankee fan Julie Amedio was one of the very first readers that we heard from. Back then, we weren't even in a blog format, so our only feedback was via email. And we'd hear from Julie several times a week. Unlike many fans (including yours truly!), there was no trash talk in Julie, no denigrating of the opposition or anything else - she always had nice and kind things to say about everybody.

We didn't know all that much about Julie on a personal basis, other than that she lived in the Albany area, worked for state government there, and came across as a very nice person. But we heard from her many, many times over the years, both on the blog, and in email, talking about the Yankees. In particular, I remember her being very sad about Cory Lidle's death. I also remember how even during the Subway Series games, she'd find nice things to say about the Mets. And when I was diagnosed with Graves' Disease, she was one of the first readers to contact me and send positive thoughts and prayers my way.

So when Jon and I moved to SubwaySquawkers.com in November 2008, Julie was one of the first people I reached out to about our new location. Unfortunately, we never heard back from her. And we never saw her post again. I wondered what had happened, and why one of our most loyal readers just disappeared for good like that. Was it something I said?

It saddened me that she never commented again. About a month later, I emailed her again at her work address, but I never heard back. And I never knew what happened - until this morning.

Anyhow, I got to thinking about Julie today, as we heard from Noreen, Fred, and Sully, three of our longtime Red Sox readers, in my Nomar thread. So this morning, I decided to reach out to Julie, and tell her we missed her comments. The email bounced back, so I decided to Google her and see if I could find current contact information. Unfortunately, I found out some very sad news, and I'm teary-eyed while writing this now.

It turns out that Julie died in November 2008 at the age of 25. Here's her obituary, and more information on what happened. She literally took ill and died right around the time that we moved to the new blog location.

When I read her obituary, I immediately knew that it was the same Julie we heard from, not just because it talked about where she was from, and how she was a big Yankee fan, but because of how it described her personality:

She possessed a remarkable love of life, and instilled that emotion in everyone she met, seeing only the positive side of everyone....Julie was a kind, pure individual, and all those whose lives she touched are the better for it. Her legacy is that she provided an example about how to live and enjoy the precious gift of life.

Poor Julie - she was only 25 years old. She didn't even get to live long enough to see her beloved Yankees win the World Series last year. It's so sad to think that somebody who loved life so much was taken from the world at such a young age. I don't even know what to say, other than to say that we miss her presence on the Subway Squawkers blog very much. Our hearts go out to her family and friends on their loss.

Do you remember Julie? If so, tell us about it in our comments section!