Secrets of a Charmed Life

In a letter from June 12, Julia says that she told Dr. Diamant that writing was not helping. Dr. Diamant replied that healing would require her to revisit painful events. Julia is unsure if she can do this, but Dr. Diamant encouraged her to remind herself she made it. Julia recalls her separation from Emmy. She woke up from her nap as the bombings in their neighborhood began. She screamed for Emmy and her mother before Thea found her. While Thea hid with Julia in her bomb shelter, she sang Christmas carols to calm her until the bombings stopped. She then learned that Julia’s foster mother’s first name was Charlotte and found the letter from Neville’s mother to Annie. Thea took Julia to Oxford and left her in her grandparents’ care. Julia does not remember much else.

On June 18, Julia writes that she had to take a break from writing and had been struggling mentally since revisiting her last days in London. Though Simon expresses concern, Dr. Diamant assures him this will work. Unable to sleep, Julia recalls more of her early years after being separated. After her grandparents could not find Annie, Julia’s grandmother convinced her grandfather to take her to America with other Oxford faculty and their family members. She reveals that during their travel, her grandparents changed her last name to Waverly, Neville’s last name. There, she was kept unaware of the war in Europe and fell in love with learning. She continued not to speak much and struggled with Christmas carols for a long time due to her trauma. She also struggled with Dr. Nielsen because she knew that he could not undo what happened, and that she wanted to return to that Friday and tell Charlotte about Emmy’s plan to prevent their separation. She befriended a girl named Frannie on a summer trip and, after her brother went missing in 1944, asked her if she thought he was alright. Julia’s friend, like her, hoped her sibling was still alive. Julia wonders if that is the purpose of writing in the journal.

On June 22, Julia writes that she and Simon are going to see his cousin perform in Swan Lake. She is nervous to meet his family because she dreads them bringing up her loss. Simon works as an accountant at the cartography company where she works as an art director’s assistant. She says she does well at the job because of her counting habit and need for control. She was an outcast when she returned to England due to not only her Americanized accent, but also the feeling that she struggled less than children who stayed in Britain. During her adolescent years, her doctor Dr. Bristol encouraged her and her grandmother to visit London.

Julia reveals she hid the brides box in the crawl space in their old room. In London, they avoided Whitechapel and Saint Paul’s, and she steadily faced her fear. She then decided to visit London again. Two days later, she writes that she enjoyed the ballet, and that her visit with Simon’s family went well. She moved to London at 20, got a job at the company, and met Simon, whom she bonded with over their shared struggles fitting in after the war. Though she loves him, she struggles to say it aloud because she feels undeserving of happiness. For this reason, she started seeing Dr. Diamant and wants to make things right.

Julia writes on June 27 that she told Dr. Diamant she wants to fix what she broke by finding Charlotte’s house and the brides box. She remembers hearing from her grandmother that Charlotte lived in Gloucestershire. On July 2, she and Simon use a map to look for the house. Julia remembers it was in the Cotswolds, and they decide to search the different towns and villages there, starting with Fairford. Three days later, she writes that the house was not in any of the towns and villages they searched. On July 12, she notes that they looked again and did not find it. Discouraged and overwhelmed with Simon’s determination to save her, Julia decides to keep looking alone, with Simon’s reluctant approval.

On July 19, Julia writes that she drove to Moreton-in-Marsh that day and remembered details about her arrival with Emmy. She searched some of the towns she and Emmy walked past but did not find Charlotte’s house. On July 26, she writes that she has the flu and will not continue her search till she is feeling better. On August 2, she writes that she traveled to Stow-on-the-Wold and talked to the librarian, who knew Charlotte and Rose. There, she learned that Charlotte’s house was called Thistle House, and that an American and her daughter were staying there. When Julia arrived at the house, the daughter, Gwen, answered the door. She revealed everything to Gwen, whose mother is English and lost family in the war. Gwen helped Julia look for the brides box in the crawl space of her old room. However, they did not find it. Julia told Gwen to give her mother her phone number but knows she will likely not. She returned to London, dejected, and apologizes to Emmy.

On August 5, Julia tries to make peace with failing to find the brides box. On August 7, she writes that Simon is encouraging her to stop writing in the journal and get rid of it so she can move forward. Julia considers this and says she will ask Dr. Diamant. Three days later, she says Dr. Diamant told her to do what she wants with the journal; she decides to keep it but stop writing it. On August 15, Julia writes that Gwen found the brides box in the crawl space in her room, which used to be Rose’s, and that even though the sketches are somewhat faded, they are still pretty. Apparently, the bride box was on the door framing, and Rose found and took it. Julia encouraged Gwen to tell her mother, but she said she would get angry.

In October, Julia tries to interest people in the sketches, but they are too outdated and faded. However, Julia wants to use one of the sketches for her wedding dress, as she and Simon are engaged to be married on April 7, Emmy’s birthday. In November, Julia finds a seamstress interested in making the dress, but her grandfather says it would be difficult to find the money, and they are not familiar with dressmaking. Julia picks the sketched dress with the buttons and pearls; the seamstress finds them too outdated. However, in December, the dress is somewhat sewn, and Julia gets her first fitting. She loves it; the dress makes her feel connected to her sister, even after she takes it off. Finally, she decides to stop writing and says goodbye to Emmy.

After reading Julia’s journal, Kendra wonders how Isabel got it and asks her if Julia gave it to her herself. Isabel says she did, which relieves Kendra. Almost a year before Mac joined Isabel and Gwen at Thistle House, they had been improving their marriage, and Gwen had adjusted to life in Stow-on-the-Wold. They went to Oxford for an art exhibit, and Mac showed her a newspaper with an article about a wedding. Isabel recognized the bride’s dress as one of the dresses she sketched and the bride as Julia. Gwen then told her about Julia coming to the house to find the brides box, so Isabel told her about her life. Mac had Julia meet them at Thistle House, where she and Isabel happily reunited.

Julia understood her sister’s name change but, among family, Isabel decided to go by the name Emmy again. Isabel reveals to Kendra that Julia’s son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, and great-granddaughter are there for the party, but that Simon died a few years ago and Julia died 20 years after their reunion from breast cancer. Isabel reveals that Colin wrote to her in 1956, and she realized he gave her the check because he wanted to connect with her as her half-brother. He also gave her the inheritance money, which had multiplied in value, to repair Thistle House when they moved in. From him, she learned that her parents were both looking for love and made mistakes, but they were not bad people.

Kendra’s recorder dies, and they conclude the interview. Isabel tells Kendra that she wants her essay to get into the newspaper; this would make her mother proud, as it would show her mother’s life beyond her death and how all their choices were affected by war and other circumstances. Kendra joins Isabel for her birthday party.