Maud Julien seemed like an ordinary woman, perhaps a little reserved. For many years she did not reveal to anyone the secrets of her childhood, which her father turned into hell: he wanted to make a superman out of his little daughter.
A child for experiments
On October 23, 1957, 50-year-old Frenchman Louis Didier and his wife, 22-year-old Jeanine, had a daughter. The family living in the north of France was somewhat unusual: Louis, a respectable and wealthy man, married his pupil, the daughter of a poor miner.
Later it turned out that he was trying to conduct psychological experiments on her, but since the girl came to him already six years old, and her personality was formed, he decided to wait until she grows up and gives birth to a child.
Louis dreamed that his daughter would not grow up like everyone else. From the age of five, Maud Didier was deprived of free time: her father constantly taught her something, studied with her, allegedly trying to develop the capabilities of her brain. To Maud was not distracted by anything, he forbade her to leave the house. The girl had no friends, however, she had pets - two ponies, a dog and a duck. Her father considered communication with them useful for her.
The compulsory program for the child included music lessons. At the same time, Louis was convinced that his daughter should learn to play all existing musical instruments. Classes took the whole day, and Maud was forbidden even to talk until her father allowed her to. Rather, she was allowed to say "something smart," but the girl did not know which phrases would look "smart" and which would not. Therefore, more often than not, she was simply silent.
The wife did not dare to contradict Louis in anything: she was terribly afraid to anger her husband and patron, she even called him not by name, but exclusively: "Monsieur Didier."
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Tests
Once the father noticed that his daughter was afraid of rodents. Then he locked her in a dark basement, barefoot and dressed only in pajamas. Louis forbade Maud to move and said that she should meditate. He scared the girl, saying that as soon as she opened her mouth, a mouse or rat would get in there.
Maud spent the whole night in the basement, trembling with fear. In the morning her mother took her. The girl was not allowed to rest, she was immediately taken to classes. Louis called what happened a "test." Over the following years, he repeatedly "tested" his daughter.
She was repeatedly forced to go down to the basement wearing a sweater with bells (to attract the rodents living there). She was also forced to hold onto a wire through which an electric current was passed, demanded that she not speak a word for weeks, or deprived her of food. Subsequently, already an adult Maud wrote that at such moments she mentally asked God for death.
Didier also took care of Maud's physical stamina. He constantly reduced the time given to the girl to sleep. She slept on a hard bed, her room was barely heated. As for food, the girl did not receive any delicacies or delicacies, since her father considered deprivation of pleasures important for the education of "superhuman" abilities.
She was given the simplest and most tasteless food. No vitamins were also required: the body had to learn to cope with their lack on its own. Fruit, chocolate, even just fresh bread - the girl never ate all this.
Everything that Maud received was in limited quantities: she had the right to use no more than one square of toilet paper for wiping, she had to wear light clothes and shoes that hardly warmed her body.
She was forbidden to wash with warm water and even sit on chairs with backs, since, according to the father, the child needed to keep himself in good shape. But she did gymnastics, fencing, swimming, and knew how to ride a horse.
When Maud was nine years old, her father began to accustom her to alcohol. Louis believed it increased stamina. From now on, every meal for a girl's dinner was accompanied by a glass of wine or whiskey.
Escape from hell
Over time, the girl learned to deceive her father, for example, secretly took prohibited food or climbed out of the window into the garden at night. When Maud was raped by their gardener, she did not say a word to her parents, because she was afraid of punishment.
At the age of 16, a music teacher was invited to Maud for the first time, since his father could no longer teach her himself. His name was Monsieur Moline. Realizing what was happening in this family, the teacher first persuaded Maud's parents to allow the girl to study at his home, and then offered her a job in his music store.
At work, Maud met a guy named Richard Julien. At the age of 18 she got married and moved in with her husband. Six months later, her father demanded that she return to her parental home, since he needed care. But Maud ignored this demand.
Rehabilitation after a family nightmare was long. Maud had to learn to communicate with other people, dress, walk the streets, eat in a cafe. In addition, she developed health problems: alcoholic beverages destroyed her liver, and her teeth deteriorated due to improper nutrition.
At first, she did not tell anyone about her childhood, and even her husband remained in the dark for a long time. It was only after Louis Didier passed away in 1981 that his daughter made her story public. She received her education and became a psychotherapist, willing to help people, just like herself, who have experienced mental trauma.
Now Maud Julien lives in Paris. She wrote a book of memoirs "The Only Girl in the World." Maud sent one copy to her mother. She, after reading the book, was very upset and said that her daughter had understood everything wrong: even after her husband's death, Janine tried to justify him.
Irina Shlionskaya