Cilla moved to Papamoa in 1997 and met her future husband Jared a year later after he answered her newspaper advert looking for a guitarist. Photo/Supplied.
Cilla moved to Papamoa in 1997 and met her future husband Jared a year later after he answered her newspaper advert looking for a guitarist. Photo/Supplied.
Terminally ill singer Priscilla Ann Veldhuizen took to the stage for the last time in a wheelchair.
In front of an adoring, cheering crowd, she thanked people for coming and for everything they had done. Her voice wavered, she paused and looked away, then appeared to wipe away a tear.
Then the music started and the 47-year-old, known to everyone as Cilla, launched into What's Up? by 4 Non Blondes.
"Twenty-five years and my life is still Trying to get up that great big hill of hope For a destination."
She had been battling cancer since 2011. She could no longer use her legs after a third round of radiation.
By the time the brave mother-of-three fronted for her final performance in April this year, the cancer had spread to her spine as well as 14 other places in her body.
She died on October 22.
Her husband Jared says Cilla sang four songs that night in front of a crowd of more than 400 people and "nailed it".
"We weren't sure if she would sing even up to arriving on the night as our last gig was in November the year before."
It was a fundraising event with 10 bands from Tauranga and Hamilton and Cilla did not let anything stop her. In the end $12,000 was raised for Cilla, which she ended up donating to different people in need.
Cilla grew up in Wellington with her mum, dad and four siblings and later moved to Rotorua, where she lived for most of her teenage years and 20s.
She would later have three children - Zakhary, now 28, Haylee, 24, and Dylan, 23.
Cilla was a qualified mechanic, hairdresser and loved the outdoors.
She was also a Chrysler Valiant fanatic, owning three of the cars in the time Jared knew her - 1968, '69, and '70 models.
But music was her one great passion and it was what brought Jared and Cilla together.
She moved to Papamoa in 1997 and met him a year later after he answered her newspaper advert looking for a guitarist.
They formed a band, Helmet in the Bush, and their first gig was six months later. Their relationship started soon after.
With Cilla as lead singer, they would play music together for 19 years at pubs, weddings and corporate functions.
The first time he saw her on stage, Jared says he knew she had the ability to read a crowd.
"In 19 years we never had a song list, she always called them out as we went."
Her singing voice was "capturing, powerful and breathtaking".
"She was my everything, the Bay's best singer and maybe New Zealand's best wedding singer ever. She had excellent banter that, along with her voice, just made her the most naturally talented muso I'd ever met."
The couple married in Te Puke in 2003. They were best friends who did everything together.
"In 19 years we were only apart for three days up until last weekend when her spirit moved on," Jared says.
Cilla was first diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2011 after finding a small indent on her left breast. Her first grandchild had been born four months earlier.
The cancer spread into 16 lymph nodes and surgeons managed to remove all but two.
She underwent chemotherapy and then radiation on the remaining nodes and for a few years was all clear. But in 2015 she started suffering chest and shoulder back pain.
A tumour had established in her sternum and after more treatment, she was told it was now non-treatable stage four cancer.
To begin with, she continued singing while getting radiation as it did not hurt or bother her, but then the cancer moved into her spine and jaw last year and she had to stop due to the pain.
Jared says Cilla always cared about others and their feelings or situations. She always tried to help out where she could.
"If she happens to give one cancer fighter the strength or drive to keep going and to keep living, and a woman the strength to go get checked out, then I know for her that would be by far her greatest achievement to date."
He says if Cilla could help raise breast cancer awareness, her death and experience will not have been in vain.
She has six granddaughters and a grandson is on the way. She felt him kick for the first time before she died.
Jared says they would take the kids out to dinner every Wednesday to create as many memories with them as possible.
Cilla did not want a funeral and so Jared held a gathering for friends and family at home last weekend after he had received her ashes. There was plenty of music.
She had countless friends and fans, he says, and those closest to her were with him at the end - helping with the kids, with meals, cleaning and keeping Cilla company.
"She had a huge personality, was the person who was the life of a party, could make people laugh and just light up a room as her voice and laughter was something that just pulled people in," Jared says.
"I love her and always will. There will only ever be one Cilla."
Music in the blood
Cilla's dad, Ron Woods, is a huge Elvis fan and so he named her after Elvis' wife, Priscilla.
Dylan, Cilla's youngest son, will be naming his new son Presley to honour Cilla and her dad Ron, who lives in Rotorua.
