Peekaboo: I See Miracles: Musings of Musical Memories and Alzheimer’s Disease

By Nurse Bob

As an entertainer in memory care communities, it is both Nurse Bob's joy and their job to seek out the triggers that bring forth social and emotional behaviors in those less able to demonstrate these feelings. Nurse Bob openly encourages mistakes, lost words, off-key singing, and shoutouts. Like any entertainer, Nurse Bob is selectively nuanced in their performance to trigger desired responses in my audience.
Each performance is like an ongoing creative experiment into what pathways Nurse Bob can take to elicit an awakening in their friends; friends who often seem unaware of their surroundings. To some, at times, their actions during a performance may appear quite odd, but that is the point. While playing music in dementia communities, Nurse Bob has experienced first-hand many levels of awakenings or miracles. This book is their story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798350951677

Nurse Bob

Nurse Bob grew up in a large family. The youngest of seven children, he experienced all of the crazy situations that accompany the extended family home situations. Elder grandparents, uncles and aunts, babies, cousins, lots of sibling friends and others contributed to the chaos of the typical day. Christmas and holidays were especially joyful. Nurse Bob is a retired nurse. He picked up the guitar at 43 years old, and by 53 he booked his bluegrass band at a couple of Nursing Homes. He experienced the result of the interplay of music and the residence, so he began booking himself as a solo act at Nursing Homes. And he left nursing at 58 years old to pursue playing music full-time. Two years later, he realized he had fallen in love with and playing for people living inside memory care communities. He found that miracles occurred between human beings who sang and played inside the joy shared music. During this time, he journaled a few of the events that provided him with such a great pleasure. He saw how the music and friendly behaviors drew people into the center of the room. In other words, into the present. And since most Memory communities are usually, "lockdown communities," he found it fascinating that interactive entertainment provides a platform for freedom to all who sing. Performing over 360 performances a year, he says he has never walked off a stage he did not entirely love. And that's a miracle in itself.

Book preview

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Peekaboo: I See Miracles: Musings of Musical Memories and Alzheimer’s Disease

©2024 Bob Shea

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN 979-8-35095-167-7

Dedications

To Family

To Mom and Dad, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles, without whom I would not know how to behave, and misbehave.

To the Healthcare Workers

May they continue to stay strong and serve by inflating the sails of those who are stalled in the doldrums.

To the Entertainers in Memory Care

Whose passion for healing through the arts can be a panacea for those who may need comfort.

Acknowledgment

Nurse Bob is a retired nurse. He picked up the guitar at 43 years old, and by 53 he booked his bluegrass band at a couple of nursing homes. He experienced the result of the interplay of music and the residence, so he began booking himself as a solo act at nursing homes. And he left nursing at 58 years old to pursue playing music full-time. Two years later, he realized he had fallen in love with and playing for people living inside memory care communities. He found that miracles occurred between human beings when shared love is expressed inside the joy shared music.

During this time, he journaled a few of the events that provided him with such a great pleasure. He saw how the music and friendly behaviors drew people into the center of the room. In other words, into the present. And since most memory communities are usually, lockdown communities, he found it fascinating that interactive entertainment provides a platform for freedom to all who sing. Each song represents a possible deliverance into another world of consciousness, another time and place. And yet, we share the same space and time while singing. Performing over 360 performances a year, he says he has never walked off a stage he did not entirely love. And that’s a miracle in itself.

Eldercare Entertainment, LLC

Contents

Dedications

Acknowledgment

Introduction

My Job as an Entertainer

When You Sing a Song

No, No, No, No, Notes! Darla

The Magic Bullet Bert

The Relay, The Mystery of MusicJoy

Peekaboo Ruby

I Forgot to Remember

It Takes a Community

The Threshold

Buh Buh Buh Buh! Billy

The Care Giver: Tender LoveMilagro

Fly Dragonfly!!! Kelly

Hey Man, Can I Hold Your Box? Leo

In Here

The Angry Valentine Doris

The Fidgeter Ted

The Marine Who Forgot the Words to God Bless America Duke

Bringing the Past into Her SongStella

Inside His Tremors Jimmy

Six Feet Apart

Re-Awakenings and True Love Loretta and Mike

The Other SideMartha

She Waltzed from Her ReclinerLili

The Train Nancy

Exhausted but Laughing Shirley

Pocket Pals Cats, Dogs, and Dolls

The Speaker Stole the Show Toni

Friend-Ships

Connections and Tributes—Songs Hold Many Faces and Names

Rock and Roll Heaven Pete

Singing into Sad Eyes Millie

Unsung Heroes Healthcare Heroes

Introduction

When I was young, I was mean to my grandmother, Vivian. Vivian suffered from senility, or hardening of the arteries, as the medical community called it in those days. Actually, she didn’t really suffer. She was generally happy, except when I teased her. Who would have thought that my life today would be devoted to sharing the joy and love of music and laughter nearly every day with people who have Alzheimer’s disease? It is quite ironic actually. I remember back in 1970, I was twelve years old and my grandmother was seventy. I remember this so vividly. She walked into the kitchen, and she danced the Charleston on the slate floor. I remember giggling at how funny it looked. I also remember that she taught me a song called, Dark Town Strutters’ Ball. Again, who would’ve known that fifty years later I would be singing this song to people with recall or memory concerns, and they would sing along. So, my mission, and this book, may be considered a living amends to you, Grandma Vivian. I guess a soul, your soul, never really does leave this world.

These days, it seems that everybody knows somebody who has dementia. Perhaps it is a family or a friend who is slipping into noticeable confusion. And if you’re over fifty or sixty and have lost your keys, or suddenly found yourself in a room and forgot what you were there for, you might jokingly say, Oh, I’m having a senior moment. And we chuckle. But the truth is, some of us do continue to have a string of memory lapses; and that starts our journey into that outer world of memory or cognitive changes.

Eldercare Entertainment, LLC

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