Studies and anecdotal evidence points out that in many cases people with Alzheimers react very well to music stimulus... Certainly this applies to Mac, it is soothing for him to listen to smooth jazz, or classics and as well he loves to hear pop music from long ago and of course he is not so up on rap or the going type of music of today..but the Christmas favourite carols have always appealed and this is what's going on these days,
Today we went to a Retired Teacher's meeting where a wonderful tenor, and his accompaniest playing the piano led the teachers in song, as well the singer did a fabulous job of singing hallelujah, and other Christmas favourites, and then interspersed with these he would lead us all in the carol singing. I don't know if it was because this man who was quite a size, would bellow out the song, but beautifully, or what...but when it came time to sing Deck the halls, as we got to the end, where we all had to sing Fa la la la la...mac at the top of his lungs actually yelled the last LA LA LA... well he stood there quite composed while everyone turned and looked to see who did THAT!!! I managed to look like "well isn't that good - you liked singing that" thinking o.k. what was that about...but since he didn't refer to it, I just let it go..but when thinking about it, i couldn't help but giggle...how funny.
Later he remembered the morning and the singer, spoke about his girth, and how wonderful this man's voice was...he mentioned the piano player, who by the way is from our town of Chateauguay, Chris Epps, he is wonderful - and leads the Choir Chorale of mcGill, but all this to say what a surprise that Mac remembered the whole performance, and yet about ten minutes after discussing the songs, the wonderful voice etc. he turned to me and said, When do you think Janet will be home?...Well i put him in the know of who and when and where Janet is...then we went into...o.k. when did i marry you, and how come we were away from each other for so long...so of course had to explain about his memory loss.
This, of course is a bit or more than a bit sad for me, but I am concentrating on the positive aspects of the day and it's been a good one altogether, so with that in mind I'll say g'nite.
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