Survivor pens life story to help other sex abuse victims healDate: 4/20/2017
LUDLOW – She found closure for her own childhood sexual abuse in 2015, successfully suing her stepfather in Federal Court for molestation that lasted from the age of 7 until she was 17.
Now the 53-year old crusader who helped extend Massachusetts’ statue of limitations on sexual abuse prosecution in criminal and civil cases is hoping to help others cope with their own abuse by telling her story.
On April 27 at 7 p.m., Ludlow resident Kathy Picard will read from her newly-published book, “Life With My Idiot Family: A True Story of Survival, Courage and Justice over Childhood Sexual Abuse” at the Barnes & Noble bookstore, located at Holyoke Crossing, 7 Holyoke St., Holyoke.
The event will also include a book signing and resources geared to aid fellow victims begin their own recovery.
“I just want to get the message out there and make people realize that they’re not alone and [that] you can live a happy, safe life. The family you are born with, you don’t have to have them in your life forever,” Picard told Reminder Publications.
Picard said the average age when someone finally decides to speak up and do something about sexual abuse they suffered during childhood is 34.
“As time goes on you think, “I should have told,” and people blame themselves for letting it happen,” she said.
Picard herself never thought about pursuing prosecution against her abuser until the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston diocese of the Catholic Church broke in 2002. Though she had told an aunt and her grandmother during the abuse, she was admonished not to speak about it.
“I started to read about the priest abuse in 2002 and I thought, ‘it’s not just the priests, it’s people like my [step] father’,” she said. “I called up my [state] representatives and learned there was nothing I could do because of the statue of limitations [on sex abuse prosecution.]”
Picard began advocating to have the cutoff age for prosecution in these cases extended. In 2006, the state statue for prosecution in criminal cases of childhood sexual abuse was extended from 15 years after the age of 16 to 27 years, but as she was then 44 years of age, Picard was a month over that cutoff by the time the legislation was changed.
Her 12-year crusade to have the age limit increased finally paid off in 2014, when the age for civil prosecution of childhood sexual abuse was extended to 35 years after a victim’s 18th birthday, or until the age of 53. This change gave her an opportunity for vindication and closure, and she immediately filed her case, finally winning a judgement against her stepfather in 2015.
For her efforts on behalf of survivors like herself, Picard has also been recognized with numerous awards, including the Unsung Heroine and the William Pynchon Award.
Picard said she began working on the story of her abuse about halfway through her lobbying efforts. It took more than five years for her and her co-author, her husband Gary, to complete the manuscript.
“There were times when we just had to put the book down and rest,” she said. “I was reliving my past.”
The book was completed earlier this year and published on March 26. Picard said she and her husband formed their own publishing company, Lake Town Publishing LLC, to produce the book, which is available on Amazon and at local bookstores.
Shortly after the first books came off the press, she and a few supporters took copies to the State House, where the majority of her advocacy work took place. She said a few days later Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo called to thank her for delivering a copy of her book.
Since that time she said she’s given away close to 200 copies of her book.
“I want to get the book into as many hands as possible. It’s not for the money, it is going to help as many people as possible, both male and female,” she said.
“It’s amazing how many people will say to me ‘I know someone who this book would really help’.”
Her hope is to get the book into the hands of Oprah Winfrey – herself a sex abuse survivor – when she speaks at the Smith College commencement in May. After that, she’d like to see her story made into a movie, to reach more survivors.
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