Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Take a mad song and make it better


Things are getting interesting at this nursing home where I play each Wednesday night. Lately I have developed a bit of a following there.   What I do in this place is play strolling minstrel style up and down the hallway for the residents as they get ready for bed.  Some of them are gathered in a small group, some spread out alone in their own space, while others stay in their rooms.

As soon as I walked in tonight, I was told that Miss Barrington had been asking for me for the last hour.  I only met her for the first time last week because she stays in her room but last week she came out for once. When I went in her room, she pointed to a stack of songs she had on her night stand and said, "this is my music!"  She motioned for me to bring the songs to her and asked for her glasses. We then proceeded to sing through most of the songs which was a small book. "Alexanders' Ragtime Band", "Hail Hail the Gang's All Here," "Bicycle Built for Two" and on and on. I finally had to tell her I needed to go and check on the others out in the hall. She said ok but for me to come back later.

When I made found my way to my usual group I sing with, I said, "Hi, how is everyone?" Ms. Taylor said, "We're all mad!" with a disgusted look on her face.  "Oh no, why is that?" I asked. "Because of that lady down there (pointing to an angry looking woman in a wheelchair) she keeps saying mean things to everyone and won't move out of the way for anyone!" Ms. Taylor explained.
"Oh I see, well how about let's sing something funny to take our mind off of this" I said and then started singing, "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain". It worked, everyone -even the mean lady sang. We sang happily for awhile when another mean lady came with her wheelchair. Ms. Mueller (who is usually very nice to everyone) said, "if you come over here-I am going to hit you with this!" (her walker). Then it seemed everyone else started squabbling and bickering. I don't see them acting this way often. Eventually I got them all singing again and we were able to change the mood.

After that I went to see  Ms. Brown who sits by herself down the hall.  I sang her favorite song "I'll Fly Away," her request each week. Then I had to go back and check on Ms. Barrington again in her room and we sang a few more. Then she said, "I guess you should go and check on your other kids now."  It was quite a busy night!

By the way, I didn't realize "Mad Song" was a poem by William Blake. Cool.

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