Able living:
Local author tells story of living with, rising above, disability
Local author chronicles a life spent coping with issues of disability.
Louis Vendetti and his twin sister, Loren, were born prematurely, roughly three months ahead of time. They spent their first 91 days in a neonatal intensive care unit. Louis was given the last rites three days after he was born because the doctors weren’t sure if he was going to live. Loren has suffered from some hearing loss, but otherwise has had no physical problems.
“I developed hydrocephalus and had a shunt put in,” said Vendetti, a Delmar resident. “I’ve had numerous surgeries on my legs, and I have scars all over my body. All my life I’ve had a physical disability that has required me to use forearm crutches, a walker, and a manual wheelchair for long-distance journeys, but it hasn’t stopped me from going to school, and graduating with honors from Hudson Valley Community College.”
He now can also be called an author with the publication of his first book “My Disability Doesn’t Define Me” (Inbetween Publishing, 180 pages).
“I wanted to be an author since I was 10 years old,” he said. “The day after I graduated from college, two years ago, I began working on this book.”
Originally he thought the book would be mostly about his experience at college, but after completing an outline and showing his idea to a professor he changed his mind. “The teacher encouraged me to write about my experiences from a very young age so that’s what I did. Part 1 is about my years in elementary, middle and high school, and part 2 is about my time at college.”
One thing that is evident in the book is how much his family has been an advocate for him.
“In middle school I was scheduled to take a music class in the basement. There was no elevator, which meant I would have to go up and down two flights of stairs every day. This was a problem with my poor balance, and there have been many times in crowded hallways when my crutches have been kicked out from under me.”
He tried to speak to the administration about having his schedule changed so he could attend a different music class. He was told, since he was capable of
using the stairs that he would be staying in the original class, even though Vendetti said he knew he shouldn’t overstrain himself.
Once he got his mom involved the school was able to work out the change, but it demonstrated to him that the adults in the school might not necessarily understand his accommodations and that he would have to be his own advocate.
In the book he writes how his elementary, middle and high school years were difficult, but that he always felt safe.
“At those schools, if I fell, people would always come to my aid. I had a support system of teachers, students and one-on-one aides. In college I was on my own and there were so many more people. I often needed a wheelchair to get around, and it was hard for me to get up the courage to ask for help.”
In this book Vendetti holds nothing back. He admits finding friends has always been difficult for him. “I would gravitate toward adults more than I would toward my peers. I related to adults more because I’ve been talking to doctors, nurses and therapists since I was a young child.”
When he first started college he wasn’t so sure it was the right place for him. “I was under so much stress trying to get from one building to another. The chaplain at the college one day asked me how I was doing and I just started bawling my eyes out.”
When he was 7 years old, he remembers, he asked God why he did this to him. “It was painful to write about those days. I had one good friend in elementary school, but we parted ways when we got older. In eighth and ninth grade I sort of became a recluse. I stopped going to my Boy Scout meetings. I just pulled away from everything.”
One influential person who helped Louis through these difficult years was his aide, Paul Moylan. “I dedicated the book to Mr. Moylan. He was my aide for a few years in middle school and then we reunited in high school. We formed a deep connection, almost like a father and son relationship. He used to always say I wasn’t handicapped, I was handicapable. I don’t know how I would have made it through some of those tough years without his support.”
Vendetti wanted to write this book to honor some of the people and places, like the Double H Ranch, a camp based in Lake Luzerne for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families, that have been so good to him through the years.
“I want to give back and maybe speak at some conferences and professional development days at school to help people with the awareness that those of us with disabilities are just like everybody else. We all have our own challenges. Mine are more visible,” he said.
“I hope this book will also show how important it is for places to be handicapped accessible, but most importantly I want people to see others like me not as someone with a disability. All we want is to be treated like regular people.”
▶ Jack Rightmyer is a regular contributor to the Times Union.