Music is Magical for Persons with Memory Loss

The Gift of Music

Music is one of the many gifts a care giver, family or professional can give to a person with memory loss.  Cheryl Biel, RN, C, writes in her practical and charming booklet, “Give Me This Day: An Alzheimer’s Primer,”  from the point of view of the person with Alzheimer’s disease.  She writes, “My ability to enjoy and be ministered to by music will stay with me to the end.  Discover what kind of music I liked in the past.  Sing it with me.  Dance with me.

“Music that I am familiar with will help me relate to my past and help me define who I am.  Music will strengthen my spiritual walk and remind me of the comfort and security my faith has brought me for so many years.  The language of music is a language that i will be able to relate to far longer than any other language that I have known in the past.

“Remember:  If I’ve never liked classical or country western music, I probably won’t enjoy it now.”

“Music touches every key memory and stirs all the springs of sorrow and joy.  I love it for what it makes me forget and for what it makes me remember.”

                                                                         –Belle Brittain

For information about how to obtain Ms. Biel’s booklet, call Seniors’ Choice at Home, a Twin Cities home care agency, at 763-546-1599, or email us at crseniors@usfamily.net