Old Folks Dancing

Tonight I attended a 2 hour concert at the senior residence where my Mom lives. The artist – a man named Barry – was an extremely good guitarist and a very good singer with a wide range of memorized music and a Bose speaker. Most of his playlist tonight was from the 60s and 70s: Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong, Elvis. I don’t think he sang anything I was unfamiliar with – although Mom wasn’t familiar with most of it. Seemed to me he was about a decade off, although many residents are a lot more familiar with music than Mom is. I really enjoyed the concert.

Two really cool things happened. A husband and wife who live there love to dance. After he danced with her, he went around and danced with just about every female resident there – some just in their chairs, but most stood and did what they could handle. He danced with Mom. 🙂 She stood and moved back and forth during most of a song and he even slowly twirled her around once. She really enjoyed those few minutes and wished that I had brought a camera!

Then a resident with Alzheimer’s – I’m guessing she could have been 90 – with a very vacant look in her eyes toddled across the room to stand right in front of Barry. I could see her face, and her eyes just shone as she listened and she began to dance. She must be a person who has loved dancing because she swung and shook her hips as much as she was able and even twirled herself around once or twice. Her family members seemed quite surprised and happy. I think her name was Donna and she would not be beckoned away for quite a few songs. She watched and danced, and smiled. She moved quite close to the microphone. She seemed to want to say something to him, but I’m not sure he deciphered it. Finally, he closed the small gap between them and leaned over and hugged her tightly and she planted a kiss on his cheek.   Eventually her family got her to go back to her table (perhaps 20 minutes or so later?) But when they wanted her to leave the room, she balked and she pointed to Barry. She wasn’t done. She wanted to stay for the rest of the concert. I felt sad when they escorted her out, but I suppose they had to get home to get up and go to work in the morning or something.

The music was like magic, and her enjoyment of it was one of the best parts of the show.