Hello to our fellow NVM readers! Tonight I’m here to tell you about our weekly performances at Ambience Care Home in Peoria, AZ.
Timothy and I perform there each Friday from 2 to 3 PM. We have played there a few times in the past, but now we’re proud and grateful that we’ve got a weekly time-slot with them.
This Friday performance started last week, so today marked our second show at Ambience. We’ve seen a few different residents come and go in the past, but during these past two shows we’ve only played for one patient: an elderly woman named Hazel. Sadly, this patient has dementia, so she doesn’t speak too often.
When we played for her last Friday, we quickly learned that her favorite word is “Yes!” We could ask her pretty much any question, and she’d always give us that positive answer. Sometimes she would mumble out a word or two which we couldn’t understand, but other than freely laughing along with us in between songs and singing a note or two every so often, “yes” was all we could get out of her.
But today, Hazel opened up to us a little bit. At one point I played “The Tennessee Waltz”, and she hummed a few notes of the melody. She really loved it when we inserted her name into one of our songs. (For instance, instead of starting “Bicycle Built for Two” with the name Daisy, we sang “Hazel, Hazel”.)
But the real breakthrough came right after our show. Timothy asked Hazel to say goodnight a la George Burns and Gracie Allen. After a short pause Hazel said, “G’night!” Tim and I were all smiles. Before we left the group home we said a prayer over Hazel, and at the end she actually said “Amen” with us. Two new words in one day!
At one time I considered becoming a music therapist, and during those classes my teachers said that music can really help people to open up and start talking or singing more often. This has been a great first-hand example of that. Tim and I love Hazel’s positivity and laughter, and we can’t wait to come back and work with her each Friday.
In the meantime, we’re off to play at a very nice nursing home tomorrow, so I’ll tell you about that when we get back! God bless you all!