Connie Vecchio’s dad Michael requested two years in the past that his Guild Starfire be delivered to his Castlegar care residence, the place he lives with dementia, however when employees went to search for it it couldn’t be discovered

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A classic guitar was one of many few remaining connections Connie Vecchio had with the person her father Michael was earlier than he started scuffling with dementia.
And now it’s lacking from Talarico Place in Castlegar, the place Michael Vecchio is cared for. He had requested his daughter two years in the past, in a lucid second, to carry him his cherry Guild Starfire, which he’s owned for 48 years, however when she requested for it this week employees on the residence couldn’t discover it.
“I miss him and the guitar sort of brings him again,” Vecchio stated over the telephone by means of tears. “I’m simply attempting to maintain him with me.”
Michael Vecchio, now 75, purchased the guitar when he was 27 off of Nick Keraiff, who as Buddy Marr fronted a preferred Kootenays doo-wop band referred to as the Versatiles.
Keraiff had been enjoying the guitar for awhile earlier than promoting it to his former scholar, and it doubtless was constructed within the Nineteen Sixties.
On-line, individuals are asking anyplace from $635 for a Starfire I SC to as much as $5,510.24 (plus $257.48 delivery from the U.Ok.) for a uncommon 1965 sunburst Guild Starfire V in its authentic onerous case.
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Together with the guitar, Connie Vecchio delivered two amps and a guitar stand two years in the past. The final time she noticed all of them was in February 2020, as a result of COVID-19 protocols have meant visits are in a delegated space and never in a person’s room.

On Tuesday she acquired an electronic mail saying the guitar stand and amps had been present in a basement storage space, however there was no signal of the guitar itself.
Postmedia left a voicemail with the care residence’s supervisor of scientific operations, Stacey Skinny, however she didn’t hear again by deadline. In an electronic mail to Connie Vecchio, Skinny stated employees have performed the whole lot they will consider to attempt to find the guitar, together with looking out each room and the basement.
Vecchio filed a report with the police and is providing a $1,000 reward.

Her dad, Connie Vecchio stated, was identified round city as “the guitar man,” and he wrote a whole lot, if not hundreds, of songs. You possibly can watch his music movies on the YouTube channel CastlegarCrossRoads, songs with titles equivalent to Mississippi Blues, 10,000 Songs About Love and Karaoke King.
Vecchio stated she had a false sense of safety that the guitar could be secure on the care residence, that she by no means would have introduced it to him if she thought it may go lacking.
“I used to be simply attempting to carry him a factor that introduced him pleasure and me pleasure,” she stated. “He’d take a look at that guitar and say, ‘Hey, I keep in mind that!’ ”
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