Her Mom Was Lost In Dementia's Fog. Singing Christmas Carols Brought Her Back
A woman had become barely verbal, an effect of dementia. Her daughter, an opera singer, decided to try singing Christmas songs with her, and they reconnected.
Susan Gustafson had suffered dementia for several years when her family decided she needed around-the-clock care and moved her into a memory care unit at an assisted living facility in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Her daughter, Nancy Gustafson, a retired opera singer and artist-in-residence at Northwestern University in Illinois, says when she visited her mom for the first time, she was devastated.
"She was sitting in her wheelchair with her head down at a breakfast table," Nancy Gustafson remembers. "I'll never forget â looking so sad and looking so lost and so confused."
Her mom answered "Yes" and "No" to questions, but Gustafson felt she didn't really understand and answered just to be polite. She says
