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Julia Michaela Rantama

July 30, 1995 ~December 11, 2022

Julia Michaela Rantama, 27, passed away on December 11th, 2022, as a result of an automobile accident. Julia was born in Vantaa, Finland, on July 30th, 1995, and moved with her family to California in 2009.

As a young child, Julia was feisty in defence of what she felt was right and extremely loyal to her family, earning her the nickname “Pikku Myy” from the Moomin characters.

Upon entering grade school, Julia began to take a special interest in being with and caring for young children. This led to her regularly being welcomed to parties and events by adults with small children who knew her. She thus naturally formed a special bond with her younger sister and brother, ten and twelve years her junior, respectively, which remained throughout her life. She regularly volunteered to babysit them, and they were a frequent topic of conversation with her friends.

Julia was energetic, kind, a nature lover, funny, gritty, feisty, helpful, supportive, spiritual, and deeply passionate about life. Julia pursued collegiate and independent studies in nutrition, physical health, mental health, and spirituality. Through her work as a trainer and therapist, Julia enjoyed supporting and giving guidance to other people relating to exercise, food, mental health, self-respect, and love.

Already upon entering high school, Julia took an interest in sustainable living. As a freshman, she once admonished a friend who placed an empty recyclable bottle into a garbage can, forcing her friend to pick it out and place it into a recycling container. Her friend hesitated, as the garbage can was quite filthy, saying “it’s only one bottle.” Julia replied “if everyone thought like that, no one would recycle anything;” her friend retrieved the bottle. She once demonstrated to her friends and family that she could reduce all waste she produced in one month down to what she could hold in the palms of her hands. Julia ultimately became vegan, engaged in studies of sustainable agriculture and zero-waste programs, and became a vocal advocate for these ways of living. She succeeded in converting much of her family to a vegetarian lifestyle.

Julia demonstrated great physical abilities and a particular talent for karate as a young child and passionately continued a pursuit of Jiu-jitsu as an adult. This ultimately led to her pursuit as a physical trainer as an adult.

With her partner Bryan, Julia had plans to start a family in Santa Cruz, California, and was expecting their first child at the time of her passing.

Julia is survived by her brother Luca, sister Sara, sister Jenny of Finland, mother Titta Ahola, step-father Andrew Bright, partner Bryan Gerges, together with many cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents in California and Finland. She will be particularly missed by her aunt Petra, aunt Marianne, friend Halo, friends-of-family Viena and Eero Pohjakallia and Johanna and Bobi Nikolov.