Transcript
[Beginning of recorded material]
[Visual: Photo of Edie and Anne. Text: Edie. A day in the life of a lesbian living with younger onset dementia]
Edie: Hi, I am Edie, and I've got a younger onset dementia. This is my partner Anne, and she's a great support to me.
[Visual: Photo of Edie and Anne in the garden. Text: Home is where my heart is.]
Edie: This is our home, and this is part of the garden outside. I guess it wouldn't be inside. I like seeing the birds in the bird feeder and they look lovely. They are parrots, Rosellas, or Lorikeets, or something.
[Visual: Photo of Edie making tea and coffee]
Edie: Yeah. I don't mind a coffee, but Anne likes tea. I like coffee, so I make her teas, and I think they're usually okay. She always says to me, "I like it strong and milky", so I have to make sure it's strong and milky. Sometimes it's difficult.
[Visual: Photo of Shinji, Edie's pet dog. Text: Shinji, the best Shiba]
Edie: That's our beautiful Shinji, and he just loves getting a little bit of a rub between the eyes like that, and he loves getting a tickle behind the ears, and rub under the chin. So he's pretty special.
[Visual: Photo of Edie and Anne at the supermarket. Text: Supermarket shopping]
Edie: Oh, my favourite place. No, I'm not mad on supermarkets, but I go to help Anne.
[Visual: Photo of Edie's medicine. Text: Being diagnosed with dementia]
Edie: I was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2010. I used to have a driving school. I really enjoyed it, but I had to retire from it because I couldn't keep going with the dementia.
[Visual: Edit at Eyres House. Text: Eyres House, activities for people with younger onset dementia]
Edie: Yeah, we were in there or going into the back, the walled garden, and there was a bit of fruit in there, picked some apples, and I can't remember what else.
[Visual: Photo of the Apple]
Edie: They were nice apples. That's one of the apples from the tree. It was lovely. We picked it.
[Visual: Photo of Edie's arts. Text: Crompton Street, art classes for people with younger onset dementia]
Edie: I go to Crompton Street, to the Salvation Army Community Centre, and we do some artwork there with Christine, and have a lot of fun.
[Visual: Photo of Edie with Marie]
Edie: This is Marie. She comes in once a week to do some activities with me. She's not a carer, but she organises activities that we can do, and they're not all at home, and we get out and about.
[Visual: Photo of Edie in her room at Nazareth house]
Edie: I'm at Nazareth house, and I've been here for nearly two weeks, and I'll be heading home tomorrow I think. So I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, it's been good here, but I'm keen to get home.
[Visual: Photo of Edit sharing her story with the media]
Edie: Anne and I advocate for people with younger onset dementia. Well, you've got to get the message out there to people that dementia isn't a death sentence. It's a disease that you have, but you can live with it, quite friendly manner.
I don't think about having it all the time, I just get on with doing what I want to do, and what I can do, and not worrying about dementia. Yeah.
[Visual: Photo of Edie and Anne holding hands. Text: Our hearts are bigger]
Edie: Anne and I have been together for 31 years. Oh, she's the most important person in my life, because she looks out for me, she does a lot of things for me and with me, and we have a good time together. There's just that there's a lot more love for each other. Our hearts are bigger, because with with the dementia, we have to work together, and we feel a strong emotion towards each other. Yeah. I think, people that are working with people that have dementia need to have bigger hearts as well, so that they can encourage the people that they're working with, and give them good experiences.
[Visual: Photo of Edie embracing Anne]
[Text: Produced by Catherine Barrett. Val's Cafe, Australian Research Centre in Sex Health & Society, La Trobe University 2015]
[Text: Directed by Edie Mayhew & Anne Tudor]
[Text: Acknowledgements: Funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. Music by Kathia Buniatishvili, J.S. Bach - Cantata BWV 208 - Schafe Können Sicher Weiden]
[Text: A collaboration between Val's Cafe and Alzheimer's Australia]
[Text: For information: Valscafe.org.au]
[END of recorded material]
