It's almost the end of World Alzheimer's Month, and we have been sharing our #DAI daily members #Hello is stories. In fact, there are so many in our draft folder, we will be continuing them well beyond #WAM2018. These stories have helped raise awareness not only of dementia, but of the unique and individual experiences each person has with a diagnosis of any type of dementia.
Today, we share Veda Meneghetti's story, who was supported by her partner Lynda. DAI member Mike Belleville produced the video which shares some of Veda's beautiful photographs, with her own music, and an overlay of her story, also copied below. Thank you Veda, and also Lynda and Mike for todays blog.
"Hello, I'm Veda Meneghetti. I was born in Adelaide, Australia to an Italian migrant father and an Australian mother. I got called "Veda Spaghetti" at school.
I hated school, but I was a "cool" teenager. My mother worked in a department store so I always had great clothes. My dad was a stonemason who worked in marble. He kept a wonderful vegetable & fruit garden and I had animals around me....I love animals.
I liked art but hated everything else and left school at 15. They'd made me feel stupid -I didn't know I was dyslexic till 50 years later. I taught myself to read & write well, but I can't read a music score.
I'd been playing guitar & singing since I was 10. I went on TV for a young talent time thing & then became lead vocalist for a couple of Adelaide bands. We started touring in Australia and then went overseas when I was 21. I met up with a girls' band and continued to work with them as resident musicians in Asia, Africa and Europe. We came back to Australia when I was 27 and became the Party Girls band. We toured a lot, made an album ourselves, appeared on TV and wrote a lot of our own music. In 1985 we were the only girls band to kick off the Australian leg of the 1st. world simulcast, Aids for Africa. I did lead vocals and rhythm guitar.
When the band split up I started my own band, Safari, which played regularly in Sydney in the 90s. I kept on writing songs though I retired from performing. My last 4 songs were recorded in 2010.
In 2012 I was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia (logopenic). I'm losing language so my partner Lynda is writing this for me. I can't read or type/write anymore, but I understand.
I joined DAI after I met Kate Swaffer. We did a presentation together in Kiama for Dementia Awareness Month 2014. Lynda and I became members of the Kiama Dementia Friendly Community Advisory Group, the #KiamaDAGs. We get together socially with other people living with dementia in our region, run community education workshops and sometimes do media coverage for the project. Lynda and I have presented at a few conferences, using my songs and our photos. We've made a lot of new friends who have dementia. We still get involved in research. I'm not ashamed to say that I have dementia - people need to know what it's like.
I just want to live in peace. I'm happy living two hours from Sydney - it's beautiful here. We go back to the city now & then to visit friends, because now most people have stopped visiting us."
Veda Meneghetti © 2018
DAI’s vision: “A World where people with dementia are fully valued and included.”