Woman Finds Lost Dad InTime For Wedding

Julie Dixon's heart was beating furiously.

A hundred thoughts flashed through her mind.She had waited 25 years for this moment and now all she wanted to do was cry.

"Hello Julie,I'm your dad" said the thick Liverpudlian voice on the other end of telephone.

Julie's tears started to flow as she sobbed "Hello dad,it's me,your daughter."

Both father and daughter were crying now.They had so much lost time to make up for.

Julie,27,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.

As they chatted,Leslie,53,told his daughter about his life in Liverpool and his new partner Margaret.They hadn't had any other children,but he had helped bring up Margaret's four children from an earlier marriage.A builder by trade,he had worked as a lifeguard for 10 years and was now retired.

Julie told her father about her family,her fiance Neil Gledd,41,and her children Jodie-Lea,aged eight,and Jamie-Louise,eighteen months...his two beautiful granddaughters.

Julie had some other good news which she wanted to share with her dad,and a favour she needed to ask.

"I'm getting married in three weeks,Dad,and I wanted to ask you if you would give me away" Julie asked.

The reply down the line was instant."It will be the happiest day of my life to walk my little girl down the aisle" said her father Leslie."There's not a day when I haven't thought about you.I always dreamt about making the father's toast at your wedding and now I will."

Julie's happiness seemed complete and once again the tears started to flow."Oh Dad,all my life I've felt as if there has been something missing,but now I feel like the jigsaw is complete" she explained."Whenever I had problems,I always made-believe that I had a real father who was kind and good,and he would come and help me.Now at long last you're here."

Julie had had her fair share of problems during the last 27 years.Her parents parted when she was a toddler - they weren't getting on and decided to end the marriage.

Leslie made the heart-breaking decision to leave Julie and her older brother Lee,29 - now a professional football player - with her mother,who doted on the pair.He returned home to Liverpool.

He says "I was devastated when I left. I missed my children so much and was broken-hearted for a long time. Every day I'd wonder about them,how they looked,where they were,what they were doing.

"Julie had curly hair when she was a little girl and I used to call her Fluffy.Whenever I thought about that,tears would well up in my eyes."

Two years after the separation,he came to visit,with Easter eggs for the children,but only got as far as the front door.Verna refused to let him in to see Julie and Lee.

She told him she'd met someone else - builder Stephen Peacock.She was getting re-married.

When Leslie heard about the marriage,he decided it was best to stay out of their lives and let their step-father bring up the children.

"They were both so young and I didn't want to confuse them with two dads.I lived so far away and couldn't offer any kind of stability.So I let them go" says Leslie.

However,according to Julie,step-dad Stephen Peacock was far from being the ideal parent.He drank,often coming home in drunken violent rages,and regularly beat her mother.

"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" says Julie.

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."

Julie,who is considering training to help other people who have suffered similar childhood traumas,couldn't wait to leave home,things were so bad.

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.

Julie recalls how alone she felt.Her mother and step-dad weren't talking to her and when her brother left home,she lost touch with him.

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 Gledd,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 in his home in Walton,Liverpool,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 Liverpool.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."