With Lady-Links visits to our dear friends with dementia, we become true friends, not just acquaintances. We learn about shared experiences, memories and even family…especially grandchildren. We are in close contact with our dear friends’ spouses and/or children and have their permission to exchange information about special events and people in their lives and our lives as long as it is positive and uplifting. As a result, many of our families are friends with our dear friends as well.
A special case in point is with one of our dear friends who plays the piano each week for us while we sing and play her set of hand chimes. She calls us her “Ring and Sing Girls” and we have such a fun time with her as together we “make music.” She is a former classroom music teacher and also gave private piano lessons for many years.
One of the Lady-Links has three grandsons who play the piano and our dear friend was eager to hear them. There was no hesitation when we asked her if we could visit her to let the boys use her piano to give her a mini-concert. She was delighted and was “in her element.” She sat by the youngest (who has only been playing for about a month) and helped him with some warm up exercises. When he played his memorized short, simple solo piece, she applauded and made him feel like he was an accomplished pianist. She did that for the older boys as well.
What a delightful experience for both our dear friend and us as we watched her “relive” in her memory her piano teaching days and be able to encourage young future musicians once again!
Such a delight seeing our friend with the young visitors playing the Piano.
It was a precious moment for our dear friend and for those boys as well. Beneficial in many ways!