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My mother is in a secure home for people with advanced dementia. All of the residents have maybe one marble left.
Today was a special Christmas lunch and each resident was allowed up to two friends or relatives come to the home for this.
I went for my mother of course, and took my music tablet (and my Santa hat) with me because I there's an old piano in the living room that, to my knowledge, has never been played by anyone, ever.
It turned out to be an old piece-a-junk spinet that, to my complete lack of surprise, was probably last tuned during the Nixon administration.
It does work more-or-less (more of the less than the more though) but the lower third of the keyboard is pretty much unusable because it's so out of tune.
I was glad that I took my music with me because it gave me something to do while I was there. I spent about three hours there and 90% of that time I was playing the piano cranking out hymns and Christmas carols. My mother sat right beside me in her wheelchair and seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit; at least it seemed to keep her attention which is more than most things can any more. The others liked it too. One of the old ladies would wave her arms around more-or-less in time with the beat. A few others would hum. Shortly before I left one of them actually said how wonderful the music is.
When I was leaving the manager said, "Gosh, we should book you to do this every month."
So the whole thing seems to have worth doing. It gave the old people something different today, if nothing else.
Today was a special Christmas lunch and each resident was allowed up to two friends or relatives come to the home for this.
I went for my mother of course, and took my music tablet (and my Santa hat) with me because I there's an old piano in the living room that, to my knowledge, has never been played by anyone, ever.
It turned out to be an old piece-a-junk spinet that, to my complete lack of surprise, was probably last tuned during the Nixon administration.
It does work more-or-less (more of the less than the more though) but the lower third of the keyboard is pretty much unusable because it's so out of tune.
I was glad that I took my music with me because it gave me something to do while I was there. I spent about three hours there and 90% of that time I was playing the piano cranking out hymns and Christmas carols. My mother sat right beside me in her wheelchair and seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit; at least it seemed to keep her attention which is more than most things can any more. The others liked it too. One of the old ladies would wave her arms around more-or-less in time with the beat. A few others would hum. Shortly before I left one of them actually said how wonderful the music is.
When I was leaving the manager said, "Gosh, we should book you to do this every month."
So the whole thing seems to have worth doing. It gave the old people something different today, if nothing else.
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