<\/a>has always been a part of her life, and now she considers it an indispensable part of her caregiving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cKaren\u2019s father was a minister, and her mother played the organ at church.\u201d (OMG! That IS my sis-in-law and she didn\u2019t tell me about it.) I read on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen her father\u2019s health was failing, he was hospitalized and given morphine. \u201cHe would become very agitated,\u201d Karen said, \u201cAll I had to do was start singing this one song, and he would calm down. He would lie back down and would calm down and would start singing with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, when hospice workers recently asked Karen if she thought her mother, Lydia, would benefit from music therapy, she said yes. Lydia is 99 years old and has been diagnosed with dementia. Karen and her husband give Lydia 24-hour care. \u201cI had no idea what to expect,\u201d Karen said. \u201cIt was very surprising to me when it was offered. It\u2019s been one of the best things that has happened with mother.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A music therapist came to the family\u2019s home with a guitar and sat down to speak with Lydia. She also brought a tambourine, maracas, and a bell. \u201cAt first Mother didn\u2019t want anything to do with it,\u201d Karen said. Lydia refused to take one of the musical instruments herself, but she did agree that she\u2019d like to hear some of the old, familiar hymns she\u2019d once played in church. \u201cYou could just see Mother calming down and relaxing,\u201d Karen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the visits continued, Lydia went from holding a tambourine on her lap to playing it as she sang along with the music therapist. \u201cIt\u2019s so fun to watch the interaction between the two of them. My mother will sing her songs, and it brings so much joy and peace. It\u2019s calming for my mother, and it\u2019s also calming for me. After the first time, I thought, I\u2019m going to do this for myself too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDuring very difficult times, I can start singing out loud, and you can just see my mother change. I had no idea how important music is to someone in my mother\u2019s state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the most important results of the therapy is that Karen catches glimpses of the mother she once knew. The singing sparks memories and, for a while, Lydia\u2019s dementia seems to recede.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI feel like my mom\u2019s back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
**************<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back to Donna. How sweet it was to read the article and see glimpses of the \u201cmom\u201d I once knew, too! I\u2019ll be spending time with Mom, Karen & George next week. I plan on singing with Mom, too! I read the words of the therapist that said: \u201cMusic stays with us to the end. That and our spiritual sense are the two things that we don\u2019t lose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Music is the connection to happy memories for me, too! You see me often adding a chorus or song to many of my blogs. That\u2019s where I came from. And, that\u2019s where I am now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is nothing like sentimental love songs that take me back to my younger years with my young (and older) husband, and the sweet baby lullabies and songs I sang to my littles. Then there are all those Gospel songs that our quartet sang regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, it is so many beautiful worship songs that my heart lifts to my Lord. Music is therapy for us and whatever that music sounds like for you and it brings you comfort, peace and even motivation, let\u2019s turn the music on for ourselves and our loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hans Christian Andersen wrote, “Where words fail, music speaks.” I know that is true. How about you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was going through my mail, tossing most of it, but then the Life\u2019s Vintage Newsmagazine caught my attention. I thumbed through it to see if anything merited reading. One article did. It was entitled \u201cMusic Therapy: Let the Rhythm Move You\u201d, by Dee Duren, Managing Editor. If it\u2019s about music, then I\u2019m in! I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24705,24704],"tags":[1210,24702,1769,10325,24703,4922,40,24698,24696,24695,2301,24706,24699,24694,24700,24697,24701],"class_list":["post-16747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-therapist","category-music-therapy","tag-blog","tag-calming","tag-christian","tag-hans-christian-andersen","tag-happy-memories","tag-hymns","tag-inspiration","tag-karen-rose","tag-let-the-rhythm-move-you","tag-lifes-vintage-newsmagazine","tag-music","tag-music-speaks","tag-music-therapist","tag-music-therapy","tag-musical-instrument","tag-power-of-music","tag-tambourine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16755,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16747\/revisions\/16755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}