Cindy Martinez

Lost Lives: a Journey of Loss and Hope Cindy Martinez

I'm the child my mother denied, Judy said to me recently in the hospital. My half sister, Judy Sickles, was "Lost" to my sister and I for over 20 years. Lost Lives is an account of Judy's life as I saw it-her mental illness, her homelessness, her stormy relationships, her loss of an only child, and her spirited struggle through poverty, family rejection, cancer-and ultimately the hope and reason she gave me to help others. Lost Lives is also a candid account of my mother's struggle through untreated depression, and it profiles her gift as a poet. It proves that untreated mental illness can devastate a person or their family and decrease their potential for a full and rich life.