Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg
The song “Silhouettes” was playing overhead as I stepped into the building. I had not heard that song for decades. And then, a grey-haired woman came up to me and said, “Where is my husband? I can’t find him anywhere!” The woman showed signs of desperation as she pleadingly looked at me from glazed-over eyes. She thought that I would have the answer. I didn’t. I said that I did not know, and she left the area where I was standing.
Her words were the first words I heard as I was standing in the memory care facility where I was to meet other members of the Catalina Chorale for our sing-out there. I had arrived early.
Another woman, who was sitting in a wheelchair, held up a key and said to me, “my key.” And then, another woman, who was on a walker, said to the attendant who was in the area, “I want to get out of here!” She was agitated, and the attendant said some words to soothe her level of frustration.
Other residents of the memory care facility started arriving, each with various levels of physical need—some were walking guardedly, others were on walkers. The faces of some of the residents looked pinched and worried, as if they were bothered by something—as if they sensed that something was wrong with them but had no way of communicating their angst. After a short time, the room was filled with the residents.
Soon, the other members of the Catalina Chorale started arriving. Everyone had his/her black binder, which was filled with our music for the sing-out, which was going to begin at 2:30 p.m. For about 10 minutes, Randall Dighton, the director of the Catalina Chorale, softly played a few tunes on his guitar, including “My Heart Will Go On” from the movie Titanic. The residents started settling in their seats to hear our voices bring memories and joy into their lives.
As we were about to begin, Randall thanked everyone for coming to hear us. And then …
Randall prepared our song list with recognizable tunes, and we started singing “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” and all of the residents started chiming in on the music. This song was followed by “When You’re Smiling,” which left everyone smiling! Some other songs of note were “You Are My Sunshine,” “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song),” “Happy Wanderer,” “Oklahoma,” “Catch a Falling Star,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” and “Country Roads.” Our sing-out ended with the song “This Little Light of Mine.”
During each song, the residents, with beaming faces, joined in with us as we transported them back to their past—to the past connections they had to the music that they heard and knew so long ago.
Then we left. And they stayed. And they will receive the care that they need in the loving and caring hands of those caregivers in the memory care facility where they will reside for the rest of their lives.
Their memories of the sing-out will be short. Our memories of the sing-out will last forever.