The wife of a man with severe dementia said, “When I was encouraged by a music therapist to sing to my husband, who had been lost in the fog of Alzheimer’s disease for so many years, he looked at me and seemed to recognise me. On the last day of his life, he opened his eyes and looked into mine when I sang his favourite hymn. I’ll always treasure that last moment we shared together.”
Dr Oliver Sacks, at a hearing entitled, “Forever Young: Music and Ageing”, stated: “The power of music is very remarkable… One sees Parkinsonian patients unable to walk, but able to dance perfectly well or patients almost unable to talk, who are able to sing perfectly well… I think that music therapy and music therapists are indispensable in institutions for elderly people and among neurologically disabled patients.”
A gentleman in the early stages of progressive dementia improvised on a xylophone during a music therapy session to express his feelings, and then stated: “I don’t know how anyone can live without music.”
A frail 93-year-old woman, referred for music therapy after being diagnosed with major depression, said: “Now, there is no need to be morose. I can have my music here with me and listen to it whenever I want to feel young.”
When a couple danced together for the first time after five years of the husband’s deterioration from probable Alzheimer’s disease, the wife said: “Thank you for helping us dance. It’s the first time in three years that my husband held me in his arms.” Tearfully, she said that music therapy had made that possible.