“Ah Yes, I Remember It Well…”

As I was in the corridor, a staff member was standing near this room talking with the patient and she turned to me with a big smile and said, “He loves your harp music; will you play for him again?”  I had played for this patient about an hour earlier and he had asked when the session ended that I return to him when I had finished with the other patients.  He smiled broadly saying, “Come in, come in!”  He asked if I knew any lullabies to help him sleep and I played two for him.  When I played the lullaby from the Peter Pan movie, “Tender Shepherd,” he began to sing along.  I played it a number of times for him and softly sang along with him.  We both marveled at the fact that he remembered the words to this song that he said he hadn’t heard since he was a young child and he was now 71 years old.  He noted that he may not remember what happened last week but he remembered the words to many songs.  He talked about many things as I created a cradle of sound for him and when the session ended and I wished him well, he was smiling and warmly thanked me.