Wedding Joy For Bride After 25 Years

Julie Dixon wept tears of joy when she as reunited with her dad Les - just in time for him to give her away at her wedding.

Julie,a 27-year-old housewife,hadn't seen her father Leslie since she was one and a half years old, when he separated from her mother Verna and left the family home in Bristol.

For most of her life Julie,who was too young to remember him,didn't know of his existence,and assumed the man who had married her mother,Stephen Peacock,was her real father.

But Peacock was far from being the ideal step-father.He often came home in drunken violent rages,and regularly beat her mother.

Julie says "We all lived in fear but my mother seemed to accept it and I guess we all did because we thought he was our real dad.

"I was known as Julie Peacock and was never told by either of them that I had a real dad and his name was Leslie Dixon.It was never mentioned."

During his outbursts,Stephen did on several occasions rant and rave about someone called Dixon,although this didn't register with Julie until years later.

To get through these times, Julie made up a pretend dad,who would come and rescue her."I don't know what made me do that.I think it was an early instinct,because somewhere at the back of mind I knew that Stephen wasn't my natural father."

"I imagined my dad as strong,kind and brave.I suppose it was the usual girly stuff.But it helped me survive the pain of those early years."

She moved out at 16 and got a job as a care assistant,then later in a shop,finding it difficult to keep any job down.

She became depressed and things got so bad that she tried to commit suicide."I took some sleeping pills because I didn't want to live.I just wanted a normal family who cared and loved me."

At 19,still feeling lonely,she met Stephen Reeves.He was 36 years old,good looking and a charmer,who swept her off her feet.

"I feel head-over-heels because he treated me like a Princess to begin with.I guess I was attracted to older men because I was looking for a father figure.He was my dream man,the part father figure,part lover that I had been waiting for."

At first things seemed wonderful but when Julie got pregnant before her 20th birthday,he came home drunk and started beating her,the same pattern as her step-father.

The first time it happened she says all she could think about was protecting her child."I didn't want any harm to come to my baby,so that kept me going."

Daughter Jody-Lea was born in October 1992.When Julie went to register her birth four weeks later,the registrar couldn't find any record of Julie's birth,despite the fact she gave him the date and place.

"I thought this was strange and the alarm bells started ringing.Something told me to ask them to search under another name.So the first name that came into my head was Dixon."

Sure enough,her birth had been registered under her real name,Dixon,not the name she now used,Peacock.

"I was shocked.It was confirmation of everything I had hoped and believed.Then anger set in,against my real dad,my mum and my step-father for hiding this secret from me.

"I confronted my mother and she told me that Leslie hadn't wanted to know and had abandoned us.She also said he wasn't a good man.So I decided not to find him.I already gone through enough with my step-father.To find out the man I'd dreamed about was just as bad was too painful to deal with."

Julie,still with Stephen,fell pregnant again,but the beatings continued and one night when she was three months pregnant,the attack was so severe that she miscarried.

She called the police.In July 1996,he was sent to prison for 12 months for committing actual bodily harm.But Julie says "He still sees Jodie-Lee and dotes on her.He has sorted himself out now."

Julie began a new life,moving into a flat with her daughter,determined to stay single after her bad experience.

But then she bumped into an old friend,Neil,whom she'd known all her life."He lived across the road,and we'd always chatted.He was a good friend,always listening to my problems and I had always fancied him."

Neil was older,divorced with three children of his own.The pair slowly fell in love.

Julie describes Neil as her soul-mate."He is such a nice guy,kind and caring.He helped heal the hurt of the past and let me be me...a big slushy mess sometimes!" she says.

They moved in together and year later had Jamie.Neil proposed after Jamie's birth and also officially adopted Jodie-Lea.

Julie's life seemed almost complete.But she had told Neil about her father,so he encouraged Julie to find her dad,so he could be at her wedding,which was planned for the beginning of June,this year.

Julie was relunctant at first."I guess I was very angry with him.Why hadn't he tried to find me? Where had he been when I was going through the bad times and I needed someone to love me and help me?

In November of last year,Neil wrote a letter to the Salvation Army,guessing that Leslie had returned to his birthplace,Liverpool.They didn't hear anything for ages,so Julie had almost given up hope,fearing that he was dead,or living abroad.

"Every time the phone rang I jumped just in case it was him.I was excited and very scared.I wondered what he looked like.Did he look like me? What was he like? My head was full of questions."

But because the telephone call didn't come immediately,Julie gave up hope,believing if he was alive,he didn't want to meet her.She kept busy by planning her big day and asked a family friend to give her away.She still wasn't talking to her mum and step-father,and relations were strained,although they had been invited to the wedding.

Meanwhile, the Salvation Army had tracked Leslie down,and he was overjoyed to hear that Julie wanted to see him."All my prayers had been answered.I was over the moon.My Fluffy had grown up and wanted to see me."

Three weeks before Julie's wedding,at 5.30pm in the early evening,the telephone rang.Neil answered it."There's a funny man on the telephone Julie,he wants to talk to you" he told her.

Julie knew it was her dad."I had this instant gut reaction.It's him.I just knew and was rooted to the spot for ages,torn between running to the telephone or running out the front door."

They talked for two hours and he invited Julie and Neil to his home.So the next day they packed the kids into the car and turned up on his doorstep.When they got to his front door,Julie says she was petrified.

"I said to Neil, let's not go in, let's get in the car and go home."

Neil coaxed her in.Leslie answered the front door, father and daughter hugged.

"He looked just like me.He's a wonderful person and we have the same personality, both with big hearts" says Julie.

Leslie is proud of the woman she has become."She is a terrific person. I feel so lucky to have a beautiful,intelligent daughter.She is a wonderful mother and such a gentle person."

Julie met her grandmother,some of her nine uncles and aunts,and 25 cousins.When it was time to go home,the pair were heartbroken.Julie returned home and was on the telephone immediately.

Just before the wedding,Leslie came to stay for a few days, to help with last minute things.

On the day of the wedding,he was just as nervous as he daughter."I felt as if I had this big responsibility walking my daughter down the aisle.But when she came out dressed in her dress, she just looked beautiful and I couldn't have felt prouder.I can't even describe what it felt like entering the church with Julie on my arm.All the guests were crying, because they knew what a special moment this was."

Julie had a touch of the last minute nerves,but her dad saved the day.

Julie explains "I thought I was going to faint,I was so nervous. But Dad held my hand and gave me a reassuring hug, and suddenly I felt brave.He was everything I had dreamed of and more - my fatherly knight in shining armour."