Dear Judith
Dear Judith is the true story of artist and incest survivor Judith Dawn Hickey, written and published by her cousin, Jean Cozier, Chicago-area writer and sexual abuse survivor. She is a writer with over twenty-five years of experience in corporate communications, film and video production, and scriptwriting. She is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and the founder of the Judith Dawn Fund for the Arts. When Judith and Jean began writing to each other, neither was aware that they had been sexually abused as children. First cousins from a family with a history of violence, alcohol, and sexual abuse, they shared the next eight years of their lives through their correspondence. Judith's letters tell of one incest survivor's journey through flashbacks, rage, pain, and sorrow, until she rediscovers herself as an artist and begins to find healing. Jean shares her cousin's journey, and begins to confront her own memories of sexual abuse, her troubled relationships, and her professional struggles as a writer. As Judith and Jean heal and grow, together and separately, they find courage, hope, and empowerment through their love for each other. Combining the intimacy of a diary, and the power of a confessional, Dear Judith cuts through the denial and self-serving rationalizations of a culture that continues to ask survivors of sexual abuse why they can't just "get over it." No one who reads Dear Judith will ever ask that question again.