At the age of 60, Maude Julien published her autobiographical book, “The Only Girl in the World,” which recounts the physical and psychological abuses she endured for 18 years at the hands of her own father.
Louis Didier, whom the author describes as mad and alcoholic, adopted a six-year-old girl and raised her to become the perfect wife.
When she grew up, he married her, and in 1957, their daughter Maude was born.
From her early years, she was subjected to “tests” meant to transform her into the “perfect survivor,” a kind of resilient superwoman, devoid of fear and emotions.
At the age of just eight, her father forced her to grab an electric fence and expected to see no expression of pain on her face.
He also used to hang her from a tall rock to make her accustomed to fear, made her drink whiskey and then walk in a straight line, and often locked her in a cellar full of mice for meditation on life and death.
Sometimes, the girl was forced to kill livestock with her own hands.
In 1972, Didier allowed his daughter to take music lessons.
A teacher would periodically come to their secluded villa in northern France, and after three years, he gained Didier’s trust, allowing Maude to go into town for lessons.
That’s how she met a musician she liked, and at the age of 18, her father allowed her to marry him on the condition that she return a virgin after six months.
As expected, the girl never returned. Didier died in 1981 at the age of 79.
His daughter, Maude, got married, had two children, and is now a grandmother. However, even at the age of 60, she has not fully overcome the traumas she experienced. She underwent years of therapy and is now a psychiatrist herself.