A couple of months ago in my July edition of Vogue I read about a remarkable woman named Melody Gardot. Melody Gardot was hit by a car at the age of 19 while biking across a Philadelphia street. She wound up with many broken bones, short and long term memory loss, and light sensitivity, among other effects. Melody had turned into “A bit of a vegetable (Zuel, Bernard (02-05-2009). "Melody Gardot should not be playing music". Brisbane Times. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2009/05/01/1240982395719.html?page=2. Retrieved 2009-08-09.)” Melody had to deal with physical pain, emotional pain, and just learning how to do everyday activities. In order to do this Melody came up with her own kind of therapy, music. Music has been said to help brain damaged people, and it certainly helped Melody. Melody started with humming and gradually moved on to singing and composing, which she still does to this day as a professional recording artist. Melody’s condition has drastically improved since she began writing and performing music as therapy. She still carries a cane and must wear dark shaded glasses at all times, but she is out living her life and touring the world to share her music with others. Not only did she help to heal herself with her music, but she also has a great musical talent. Her voice is smooth and sophisticated and her compositions are extraordinarily beautiful. Her music is as soothing to the listener as it is to her pain. She is very much a story worth telling, and a talent worth listening to. Look up her and her music at http://www.melodygardot.com/ and http://www.myspace.com/melody
sources: Vogue, July 2010; melodygardot.com; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_gardot
photos courtesy of Melody Gardot's flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/melodygardot
correction Elle July 2020 not Vogue 2010 my apologies
ReplyDeleteRachel-
ReplyDeleteThis article is so interesting that you found and teaches very good lessons. It shows how an average girl named Melody, can go from living a normal teenage life, to being famous throughout the country. The way she became famous, was a tragic story, but it's good that people can learn from her story and try not get themselves into the same situation. It is also fascinating to me that music has cured Melody so much. Not only did it help her body heal, but it helped her emotionally as she became well known because of the good quality of her music. If this treatment worked so well on her, maybe this would work for other people around the world who get hurt like Melody did, many broken and bruised bones. If this way of healing does prove to be successful, it could lead to new research and cures, and Melody would be the one to thank for this.