"Pump Organ"

Joyce is an amazing woman who is using Art and Music to aid in the cause of Alzheimer's. Here is her personal story.

It is really amazing, and a little frightening to find that almost everyone I talk with has either a family member or friend diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease! The victims are especially needy and so often neglected. Working in nursing homes is ... difficult for me, especially when I go to the one where Mom spent the last two years of her life wearing an ankle bracelet in a locked ward. Terrible. It breaks my heart to hear nursing home staff tell me that often - OFTEN - family members are virtually abandoned, once confined for care.

The last time Mom was out, I took her "down home" to the Hough chapel on Memorial Day 2002 where she played 4-5 hymns perfectly on the pump organ. (picture above) Then, she turned around and didn't know where she was, or who I was, or her sister and cousin standing beside her. Music reaches through the plaque-filled Alzheimer's brain in mystical, magical ways.