ABOYNE – Valerie Lee may be 100 years old, but as she puts it, she still knows how to “find the tune.”
Sitting in a wheelchair at the Wellington Terrace Long-Term Care Home, Lee has a pair of headphones on, connected to a SanDisk MP3 player.
The Happy Wanderer, a tune from 1954, plays.
“I love to go a-wandering / Along the mountain track / And as I go / I love to sing, My knapsack on my back / Val-deri,Val-dera,Val-deri,” The Stargazers sing to a steady marching tempo before the catchy track picks up.
“Oh, that’s my favourite song,” Lee says.
Music plays an important role in the daily lives of Terrace residents, either through programming such as “Drummfit,” where residents bang on an inflatable yoga ball with drumsticks in time to music, through Sunday church services with a large music component, or in the background during meals.
“There’s always music going [when] it’s appropriate,” said life enrichment manager Tiffany Wurdell.
The MP3 players like the one clipped to Lee’s cardigan were purchased with a donation and are setup with music based on what the resident likes. For Lee, it’s largely packed with hymns.
Since the pandemic began, recreation staff have had to get creative and music provided a way to engage residents while following ministry-mandated rules.
“I feel like as a [recreation] therapist, music was something we could give to them while they were in isolation over the past couple years that was huge for their quality of life,” said Heather Karrow, who keeps things fun and entertaining for the 28 residents on the “Oak Glen” wing.
When residents couldn’t gather together, Karrow instead brought the music to them. At 2pm each day, the sound of hymns being sung would fill the hallways where residents remained in their doorways, connected by a chorus of nearby voices.
“It was a really tough time,” Karrow remarked.
Wellington Terrace Long-Term Care Home recreation therapist Heather Karrow sings with Valerie Lee. (Photo by Jordan Snobelen)
Over on the “Birchdale” wing, Sidney MacDonald looks into the eyes of Gord Burns as she sings My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.
Burns’ hands feel the rumble of the ball bearings rolling around in an ocean drum, mimicking the sound of undulating waves.
MacDonald is a music therapist with Wellington Music Therapy Services and works with residents at the home each Friday, thanks also to a donation.
A big part of what she does is known as “reminiscence”– using music to key up memories or make a connection to a past experience, MacDonald explained.
“Almost every person has some form of attachment to music,” she said.
And because music activates vast areas of our brains, the experience exercises residents’ minds, and creates social interaction in the moment.
“People who can’t speak can still engage, and we’re still working on social interaction because they’re making eye contact with me; I can see them smiling, I know their mood is [improving],” MacDonald said.
During the session, MacDonald gauged what music genres and eras the residents were interested in, and what their individual abilities were.
John Denver, Abba, Fleetwood Mac, and of course, Anne Murray, are all popular choices.
MacDonald loves long-term care, and the “awakening in the eyes” that music therapy brings elderly residents.
Her practice goes beyond musicality, she said, it’s also about accomplishing non-music goals through music.
She chooses smaller instruments, like a djembe, so residents can work on fine and gross motor skills.
During Rock Around the Clock, residents were asked to mimic clock positions with their arms and hands.
Before MacDonald can sing out the first line of Show Me the Way to Go Home, resident Betty Saunders lights up, recognizing the Julie London tune.
Moving her arms as a conductor would, she sings, “Wherever I may roam / On land or sea or foam / You can always hear me / Singing a song.”
That is certainly true here.
