I had been volunteering at Lincoln Glen Nursing Center (LGNC) for 3 months and working with the Music & Memory program for 2 months when I first met Rita. The activities director at LGNC had explained to me that Rita would particularly benefit from a Music & Memory iPod playlist because she had been increasingly agitated in the past few weeks.
So, that day, I went to Rita’s room, knocked politely on the door, and introduced myself. As Rita first spoke to me, I realized that she had some type of language disorder as all the words and sounds that came out of her mouth were completely jumbled, and I could not understand a single word she was saying. Later, when I asked my activities director about Rita’s language disorder, my activities director explained that Rita had aphasia, which is a disorder characterized by the loss of the ability to produce language, as a result of a stroke she had suffered years ago. What this meant for Rita was that the words and sounds she produced were completely unintelligible to everyone around her.
As a result of Rita’s language disorder, it was particularly hard for me to obtain the necessary information to create a Music & Memory playlist with the appropriate songs that related to her past. However, I did recall my activities direction mentioning that Rita’s daughter would visit Rita every few weeks. So, I decided to talk to Rita’s daughter and fill out the Music & Memory questionnaire by asking Rita’s daughter about Rita’s past and about her musical preferences. I was able to gain quite a bit of information from Rita’s daughter about Rita, including that she loved listening to and playing the piano before she suffered the stroke.
Equipped with the knowledge about Rita that I had gained from Rita’s daughter, I set off to create an iPod playlist of songs for Rita. As I pianist myself, I was eager to add songs from famous pianists to Rita’s playlist. I downloaded songs from Beethoven, Debussy, Brahms, Chopin, and many more pianists. I also included songs by Patsy Cline and Billie Holiday that Rita’s daughter had mentioned.
Finally, I gave Rita her playlist, placed the headphones on her ears, and played the music. Because Rita could not communicate with me using words, it was much harder to tell if the music was affecting her or soothing her in any way. Week after week, I played the songs for Rita, with no apparent effects on her agitation. One day, though, just as I was coming back from checking on other residents, I saw Rita, with closed eyes, tapping her foot to the beat of the music. Finally, Rita had experienced the effects of the music therapy.
Working with and getting to know Rita, while also navigating the intricacies of her language aphasia, has been an absolute honor for me. It was intensely satisfying for me to see the eventual effects that Rita felt at the songs I had curated for her. Since my initial experiences with Rita, I have played her iPod playlist for her every week and created tens of iPod playlists for other residents at LGNC. I am thankful that I was pushed out of my comfort zone to volunteer at LGNC and grateful for the people I was able to help.