Lessons Learned and a Hospice Patient Wants Answers

Type of post: Chorus news item
Sub-type: No sub-type
Posted By: Sam English
Status: Current
Date Posted: Mon, Mar 18 2024


 
Nashville Music Medics Learn a Valuable Lesson!


The Nashville Music Medics visit to The Children’s Hospital at Tri-Star Centennial on March 13th, was interesting to say the least.  We started our day with a return visit to see our friend, Mannon, once again. He was quite happy to see us, and his wonderful smile certainly did brighten our day.

We moved on to visit a young man named Kaden, who entertained us with his singing of several Mickey Mouse Club songs after we began with “The Kaden Song”.  We chimed in with our own woodshedded versions just to help out.  We don’t think they’ll be added to our Disney song list any time soon. It was different for sure!

As we were leaving, we were asked to stop in to visit a little boy named Charlie. You can imagine the number of songs that went through our minds as we approached his room. Of course none of them were used. Once we arrived and introduced ourselves, we figured we’d be safe with The Name Song; however, we soon learned that was not the case.

Charlie was quite fidgety, and became upset when he found out that his favorite toy had been taken out of the room so that it could be opened up for him to play with. He started to cry and ran out of the room, splitting us down the middle like an NFL running back! We stopped singing and stood there a bit dumbfounded as that was another first. We had never been walked out on, let alone “run out on” during our singing!  As we collected ourselves to leave, we were told that Charlie was on the spectrum and even after Charlie had retrieved his toy, there was no calming him down.  As we left, his mother apologized, and thanked us for our stopping by.  We understood, and left feeling sad that we couldn’t cheer up Charlie. Many of us were thinking, “Sorry, Charlie”.

That was a hard lesson to learn. There are times when no matter how much we want to help, it just won’t happen. We sometimes fail to realize how much stress some of these children and parents are under, and no matter how hard we try, we can’t improve their situation.  




 
And as Nashville Music Medics move on to AliveHospice we soon learned:

AliveHospice Patient Demands Answers to her Questions!


The Nashville Music Medics’ visit to Alive Hospice on March 13th was quite different. As we have shared quite often, we never know what to expect until we arrive.


We started our day by providing support and comfort during our visit to a patient who was a family friend of our own Dave Mensel, and his lovely wife Annie.

We soon learned that Scott was a long time friend, part of their extended family. There were smiles and laughter with our joyful and upbeat presentation of some of our favorite tunes, including “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” and “Just a Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down”; and a few tears were shed as we finished with “The Irish Blessing”.  We knew our message was felt by Scott, with Annie at his bedside.



As we left to visit our next room, we were asked by the Chaplin, if we would stop by the break room to sing a few songs for some student nurses who were finishing their internship at Alive Hospice before graduating.  How much fun was that! They were clapping and cheering and you can tell by the smiles captured on their faces that they had a great time.  We graciously received a number of videos they had taken during our time together.


            


           

                                                  
                                                          
                                                
                                                              
                                              


       Another incoming visit request was from a lovely 94-years-young lady and her family.                                                       Tommy Lou, Tommy Lou, Tommy Lou!
                                                        What a “hoot”!

She was singing, smiling and just having the best time especially when we sang “The Tommie Song” for her.

After that, the questions started pouring in. She wanted to know everything about each of the ten of us. That took some time and a customary 5-minute visit turned into 20 minutes.

What an unforgettable visit with Tommy Lou. She left us with some sage advice - “To live everyday to the fullest”. She said she was “well one day and the next day she was there in hospice care.”  We left her with our Irish Blessing. We were touched by this wonderful lady who was so kind and generous with her time.



A collaboration for Nashville Music Medics by Sam English and Wayne Jackson