Judith Cabrera (nee Collins) 21 March 1955 -

	My name is Judith Mary Cabrera (nee Collins), nicknamed Princess Judy by my younger siblings because I was and still am, always singing. I am the third born daughter of Cornelius Collins and Bridget Collins (nee Lennon). I have one brother Graham and three sisters, Barbara, Mary and Cathy. I was born in West Brunswick and went to Primary School at St.Joseph’s in the same suburb. Outside of school I did ballet, tap and Irish dancing and had piano lessons. I went onto St. Aloysius College in North Melbourne and left after completing Year 5. My favourite subject was art and I aspired to be a commercial artist. During my secondary school years and into late teens, I sang in the Church choir and was in the Parish youth group. I belonged to the Debney Park Amateur Theatre Company, where I performed in stage productions of Brigadoon, Carousal, Oaklahoma and South Pacific. This was the best fun. I also went to the Susan Johnston School of Deportment. And, I worked part time at the local newsagent.
I started work at the Australian National Line Shipping Company in 1970 as a Registry Clerk, and worked my way through various departments to achieve the position of Corporate Relations Officer. I left in 1987. During this time I represented the company in the travel section of the Miss Australia Quest in 1972, I didn’t win but had the time of my life raising money for the Spastic Children’s Society of Victoria, and doing all that beauty pageant stuff. In my teens, I did lots of dating, I spent just about all I earned on clothes and makeup. I loved clothes and fashion and always had to be up with the latest and I dared to be different with my clothing. I had a large group of friends mainly boys that I always hung out with, they would all come around to my house to play snooker, I was a bit of a champion at the game. These guys were my mates, they would often remain at the house while I went on dates, and would look out the window as I was leaving, then let me know the next day what they thought of my date. I had lots of girlfriends too but none as wonderful as my best friend Angela Powell (nee Romanin) who remains my best friend today, we lived across the road from each other, went to Primary, Secondary and worked together.
			From 1975 to 1992 I was married to a person who’s name is not worth mentioning, who preferred going out with his mates and sleazing over younger women. Any memories of this person have been permanently erased. The only memories from these years that I hold dear are of my family, my Labrador Marsha and of my stillborn baby boy born at 28 weeks on 11 August 1987 after countless IVF procedures. I also became Godmother to four beautiful children Aaron Powell, Wade Collins, Alexandra Gough and Elise Zoch. After leaving the Shipping Company in 1987, I did casual work at the French Bakehouse and then at Spotlight Stores. They utilised my craft skills and I did in-store craft demonstrations for the customers. Then in 1989 I decided it was time for a career change, I became a childcare worker at Dunstan Reserve Child Care and remained there until 1997. During this time I did ballroom dancing, took up swimming, water exercises and even started doing face exercises. I did lots of walking and bike riding, went to Hong Kong and Fiji, took craft classes in leadlighting, leather work and screenprinting. I did lots of dating and nightclubbing with the girls from work. I also embarked onto the craft market scene with mum. We had permanent stalls at Williamstown and North Essendon - at times we couldn’t sell enough and would make crafts in a production line manner. Meanwhile Mum’s dementia was slowly starting to get worse and I would be vigilant in my visits to her and dad - always taking meals down and helping with housework.
				Then, all of a sudden in 1996 when I least expected it I met my husband, my love and soul mate Renato Cabrera. He offers me unconditional love, treats me like a princess, is always by my side and supports me in my desire to care for mum and dad. We married on 26 February 2000 at St. Ambrose’s Church in Brunswick. After meeting Renato, I decided to get back into office work. Being out of the corporate world for 15 years meant I had to go back to school part time in 1998 and I completed a Certificate 2 in Office Administration. From there I did casual work for the Quit Campaign and the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria. Renato and I became involved in the St. Vincent de Paul Society where we went on welfare visits, and took on the rolls of treasurer and secretary. We were also on the Parish Ministry Group. In 1998 I started full time work at the Returned Services League’s Advocates Office as Receptionist and Administration Officer and remained there until 2001.
		I gave up work and moved with Renato into a granny flat in the backyard at mum and dad’s to care full time for mum. Alzhemiers meant she was rapidly declining. This period in my life was extremely stressful watching mum lose her ability to communicate and function normally, it has given me a great insight into the world of dementia and this desperately, debilitating disease. Through all of this I would not have managed without the help, love and support of Renato. We adopted a dog called Bear to help us care for mum and keep her company - little did we know that he would bring as much joy as we’d hoped for. Bear plays soccer, football and is addicted to chocolate and treats. He is a creature of habit and follows the household routine. In fact he lets us know what we should be doing next! He is almost human except he can’t talk. We did a doggy test on him and he rated Highly Intelligent. Bear was as depressed as I was when mum went into the nursing home. He still visits her today with great enthusiasm. He makes us all very happy and he is my walking partner and Renato’s soccer partner every day.
Mum went into the nursing home in 2002, I continued to be involved in her welfare and visit her every day and attend to her wellbeing and this consumed most of my day. During that time I had a casual job delivering Meals on Wheels. After that I took up casual work with Coles Supermarket putting in about 15 hours a week as a service assistant. I chose hours to work around still being able to visit mum every day. Sadly, after her long battle with dementia, Mum passed away on 9^th December 2006. We have remained at home with dad, basically for support, to keep him company and do the domestics. Currently my hobbies and interests are dedication to the care and wellbeing of dad, being with Renato, walking the dog, sewing (still), singing (still), music, going out to dinner and the movies and maybe I should take up doing face exercises again! Currently I have permanent part time work at Coles, however I am aiming to get back into office administration or reception work on a part time basis. I am looking forward to going to Chile one day to meet Renato’s large family.

Last updated by Judith Cabrera Collins 6 August 2007

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