Nineteen-year-old Julie Mannix Von Zemeck was forced to choose between terminating her pregnancy or being committed to a mental institution. The decision would change the rest of her life.
Julie was expecting a child with her boyfriend, Frank, who, it was discovered, was married to somebody else. Abortion was illegal in 1963, and giving birth to a child out of wedlock was a scenario that Julie’s parents were not prepared to entertain. They decided to protect the family’s reputation; they left Julie in a hospital for the mentally disturbed and criminally insane, alone, for six long months.
Julie was “a debutante from the Main Line of Philadelphia,” and her father and mother were a journalist and writer, respectively. Describing her parents as “strange and glamorous,” the young expectant mother was under great pressure to bow to their wishes.
Julie reluctantly signed the adoption papers to give up her daughter, named Aimee. “I just desperately wanted my child, a baby conceived in love, with a man I loved, to live,” Julie wrote. “[But] my heart ripped apart,” she confessed. “I put down the pen, turned away, and, on shaky legs, I left my baby behind.”
Julie was sent home from the hospital the day after she gave birth. Upon returning to the family home, Julie discovered that her parents had lied about her six-month absence and kept her pregnancy a secret from everybody. “That’s heartless,” Julie shared, remembering her distress. “It’s a horrible thing.”
Frank was divorced during Julie’s institutionalization, and the pair, very much in love, married in 1965. They moved to New York City and Julie became an actress. Every year, with heavy hearts, the married couple acknowledged their beloved Aimee’s birthday on April 19; their wedding rings were even inscribed with the special date.
They had two more children together: Danielle, and Frank Junior.
Aimee, who was renamed Kathleen Marie Wisler by her adoptive family, experienced a childhood full of love. Her adoptive mother tragically died when Kathy was just 6 years old, but a failed second marriage and a stint of poverty actually brought Kathy, her father, and her adoptive siblings much closer together.
When Kathy had children of her own, she began thinking of her birth mother. Miraculously, with the help of the Catholic Social Services of Philadelphia, Kathy was able to track down Julie and Frank. She sat on the information for 10 years before the time was right; then, she wrote them a heartfelt letter.
Julie phoned her daughter just two days after the letter was sent. Kathy was stunned. “I never imagined I would feel like a daughter again,“ Kathy shared, adding her perspective to mom Julie’s story, ”and yet here I am, cherished by two strong and thoughtful parents who worry when my kids are sick and who call for no reason.”
“It’s as if we have been dropped into the concluding chapter of a fairy tale,” Kathy shared, “and we all know how fairy tales go.”
