Alive Inside - Find Your Songs

Meaningful music has a place in our caregiving strategies, and can often becomes active expression and conduit of our love.By Pamela R. KelleyAlzheimer's Reading RoomMy mother, Audrey, had a famously tin ear. She ’d be the first to tell you that she couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. But she liked to sing, nonetheless. So when we began our partnership through the last five years of her life, we made a habit of singing every day.Four songs. That was it. At any point in the day, if I heard Audrey hum a note in her distracted way, I would catch her eye and hold her glance and ask her,“Do you want to sing with me?” These were our songs:1. Let Me Call You Sweetheart.2. Oh What A Beautiful Morning.3. My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean4. and, You Are My Sunshine.Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading Room Now - This is a Free ServiceThere was something about these songs that she loved, though I don ’t know what made them special to her. We made them ours.We hammed it up. We looked into one another ’s eyes while we sang them, whether from across the room or sitting side by side. We sang them in all sorts of places, and under all sorts of conditions. Butthere were very few days when we didn't sing our songs, each at least once before our day was complete.When my mom stopped singing along, I kept singing them.She would hold my gaze with her eyes widened expectantly. Sometimes she would smile. Sometimes she would reach for my hand. Sometimes she would tap a finger or a foot.Oh W...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - Category: Neurology Tags: alzheimer's live Alzheimer's music alzheimers reading room dementia care find your songs health. alive inside memory care searches related to music and alzheimer's Source Type: blogs