A Wild and Crazy Day!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013...we went from 65o to the 40's in one day....gotta love Fall in Maryland!

Yesterday was a really cool day.  I went to do my final Internship Hours (I am dragging my feet, I don't want to leave my patients) before I get my Lady.  As I was tuning up my Harp in the Lobby area, this man comes up and we start chatting about my Harp and how beautiful the instrument is and he tells me his Mom is in Hospice Care.  I got her room number and told him I would stop by, even though she was not on my list.

Later as I am entering the room, he stops me and says, "she is out of it, she won't know you are here, but thank you for trying"...to which I replied, "but she CAN hear the Harp and she CAN feel the vibrations of the strings, so I will play for her if that's ok with you".  The Patient was in her 90's and very frail and non responsive to my voice.  3 cool things happened...

1)  After the second song, the Patient opened her eyes and looked at us and then just relaxed back to a peaceful and relaxed state.  The Son started crying and said, "she can hear you, I am just so happy".  I had to fight hard to keep my composure...the last thing he needed was me crying along with him, lol
He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a roll of money and puts it in my hand...well you can guess my reaction, NO WAY...but thank you so much for you kind offer!

2)  As it turns out, this man is from California and is so heartbroken that he only has occasional visits with his Mom, as she is failing fast.  He told me that he belongs to a group in CA that is hosting a fundraiser for Alzheimer's and Dementia.  The name of the convention is "The healing power of Music" and the guest speaker is non other than the son of Harpo Marx!  He than asked me for my Business Card, 5 of them to be exact and said he had connections in my area and he would get my Business Cards into the right hands.  As he was leaving he gave me a huge hug and I told him I would try to get to his Mom as often as possible, but that today would be my last Internship Day and that I was hoping the Facility would hire me for part-time hours so I could stay with my patients.  He asked who was over-seeing my Internship and gave me another hug......could there be employment possibilities?

3)  As all these beautiful things are happening to my Patient, on the other side of the Curtain is her roommate...I could not see her and I thought her bed was empty.... but as soon as I started to play, she started to scream out profanities at the top of her lungs.  She made animal-type noises and the Son was so upset, he kept apologizing....to which I said, clearly this other patient is fighting her own battles and we should have compassion for her also (he wasn't buying it at all and was very mad).  At one point I just lost it and had to break down laughing, but pulled myself back together and finished up. 

After the Son left, I went to the curtain and asked if I could talk to her.  She said, yes, what's your name?  So I told her Jackie, to which she laughed out loud and said, "that's a man's name!  that's a funny name for a girl!"  I reminded her of Jacqueline Kennedy and she said, well than your name is not Jackie, it's Jacqueline and that IS a girls name!   OMGGGGGGG from there it was uphill all the way, but I left and we were best buds.  She asked me if I could come back to see her again, so I will give it a shot today...wish me luck...it could go sour.

So these 3 experiences taught me so much about myself and the hardships of others.  I had unbelievable compassion for the roommate, in-spite of her behavior....and fortunately I saw the humor in the situation...what a wild and crazy day that was :)

To read past Dolce Harp Posts, you can go tohttp://dolceharp.blogspot.com