Assignment 16- Elizabeth Salamanca

Strike A Chord 

My grandmother spoiled my siblings and me to the extreme. It was her hobby. No, really, I have like twenty five American Girl dolls on my own, with white names including (but not limited too): Caroline, Kristy, Claudia, Felicity, Julie, Nikki, Lanie, Meredith, Ruthie, Kit, Margaret, Olivia, Emily, and Elizabeth. But did I slave over sticky lemonade stands all summer and earn it? Hell no. My grandma would hand me a catalogue and say "circle whatever you want." Every Christmas, under the tree, there seemed to be an endless amount of small, individually wrapped American Girl boxes full of clothes, furniture, and accessories.  Every year I begged her to stop, and she refused. And every year I would say "thank you so much Jean! I never expected this!" I always expected it. 

She was my best friend. My grandma and I would bake pies and cookies while listening to "The Sound of Music." She taught me to play nursery rhymes on the piano and bought me my first music book in second grade. When I told her I wanted to start taking piano lessons, she gave me the piano.  

My sixth grade year, I gave up on stopping her from her pampering, but then I realized I didn't have to. The presents simply stopped coming. I haven't received a present from her in almost four years. As she's aged, Grandma Jean has been falling deeper and deeper into the pits of dementia. She can no longer remember how to play those nursery rhymes. She can no longer drive or walk. She can no longer feed or dress herself. She can no longer remember my name.  

In efforts to remind her of my childhood, I visit her weekly to play some of the songs from "Sound of Music." I learned to play songs from her childhood to remind her of when she was sixteen going seventeen. At the beginning of my performance, she'll say "well, they got me a piano player! Ain't this new and different!" At the end, with tears in her eyes, she'll say "thank you, Elizabeth. That was lovely," and continue to hum the songs that she couldn't remember five minutes ago.  

According to Harmonizing The Brain: Music and Alzheimer's Disease, Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease that eventually causes the loss of attention, orientation, memory, and identity. The Alzheimer's Association report: every thirty-three seconds someone develops Alzheimer's. One out of nine people age sixty-five or older suffer from dementia. That's three of us in here. Three of us might not remember these high school days, their loved ones' names, even their own name.  

According to Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory, music memories are some of the strongest because of the way they enter the brain. Not only does it affect auditory parts, but visual (to play,) emotional (to connect with,) and even coordination at the lowest level in the cerebellum (to dance, or try to dance.) Starting from infancy, music records itself in our motions and emotions. Luckily, these are the last parts of the brain to be affected by Alzheimer's. In 2009, archeologists uncovered a 35,000 year old flute made of bone and ivory. Music predates civilization, which is only 6,000 years old. Four Ways Music Strengthens Social Bonds suggests that music increases cooperation, coordination, contact, empathy, bonding, and trust between people. From a mother singing a lullaby to her child to singing the national anthem at a ball game, music permeates our daily life. 

An insurance company has no problem paying $1000 a month for an experimental medicine in a nursing home. No questions asked. They refuse, however, to buy them a $9.99 CD player for personalized music (I know CD players are old, but so are they.) Do you know why we call them nursing homes? A century ago, rich elders received nursing care in a home-like setting. Millions of less fortunate elders spent the end of their lives in poorhouses. In an effort to care of old people on a mass scale, the modern "nursing home" acts as a hospital. Too often we view the human body as a complex machine with dials only medicines can adjust. Blood pressure? Oh, turn that down! Blood sugar? Turn it up! Nothing has been done, medically, to help the mind and happiness of a patient. 

With this gradual transformation from homes to hospitals, the personal care has been forgotten. Nurses pay little attention to the minds and happiness of their patients, and instead focus on a "hospital-like" approach. Providing these dementia patients with personal music offers both immediate and long-term effects, including increased cognitive functions, increased memory capabilities, and an increased life span. 

Nursing homes do not have the necessary resources and budget to buy hundreds of devices for their residents, nor do governments reimburse them for money spent on Ipods, CD players, or even phonographs (I assume they would know how to use them.) Half of the people in these facilities receive no visitors, and could not rely on family members to provide this for them. And it can't just come from me playing flute and piano once a week at my grandma's place. 

Imagine the person you care most about in this world. It could be  a significant other, a parent, a sibling, maybe even a best friend. Now, vividly imagine them saying, "sorry, who are you again? Have we met?" That's the reality for millions of Americans. So, what can be done to ease their pain? On a large scale, increased awareness of the effect of music on our grandparents could help the cause. But in our own community, I challenge you to go to a hospital, or a nursing home, or even your grandparents, and play them a song from their youth. Who knows? You could end up connecting with them. You could end up helping them remember themselves. You could end up striking a chord with them.  

Works Cited 

• Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory. Dir Michael Rossato-Bennett. By Michael Rossato-Bennett. Perf. Dan Cohen. 2014. Web. 19 June 2016.   

  

• Geist, Mary Ellen. "The Healing Power of Music." AARP Bulletin July-Aug. 2015: 30-32. Print. 

• "Latest Alzheimer's Facts and Figures." Latest Facts & Figures Report | Alzheimer's Association. N.p., 29 Mar. 2016. Web. 11 Dec. 2016. 

• Rajan, Deepa. "Harmonizing The Brain: Music and Alzheimer's Disease."YouTube. TedXTalks, 22 Dec. 2015. Web. 27 June 2016.