Christmas Caroling, a favorite pasttime

Dec. 4, ½ hr:

My roommate decided she wanted to go play her guitar for the elderly at the facility I have been volunteering at, and asked me if I wanted to come along with her. I absolutely did. So we went down there, and there were a lot of groups volunteering. That is the awesome thing about LDS people, they are very service oriented, and the buildings were all full of carolers and musicians wanting to volunteer. It was awesome to have to fight for attention, the elderly patients were eating it up. The only available building was the Alzheimer building, so we went over there. The facility has this cool door lock that to get in you have to push a button to unlatch it, and then to get out you have to enter the code. I’ve been in the building a couple of times, but I won’t lie, when we went to leave and I couldn’t remember the code, I didn’t like the panic of being locked in! Ha ha

We went inside and went room to room, asking if the patients would like us to sing them a Christmas song. No one refused, which surprised me, because the odds of being rejected at my facility are a lot better. One woman refused to be the only one that could hear us, so she came out to the lobby so we could sing to all those patients too. For the most part, the patients that were in the lobby were pretty out of it. A couple of residents were playing with dolls, cuddling them and doing their hair, and I loved it. I have seen this before, this desire to care for something, even if it is a doll, from patients who have faltering mental capacity or memory. It is touching, and also fun when you have to play along to get them to complete the task you want them to, such as showering or toileting. I have had some hilarious moments using “the kids” to convince the resident to come eat, telling them that since the children are asleep they should come eat, go shower, or even to stop swearing at me.

They were so sweet, every one we met was very child-like in their behavior towards me and the other carolers. One even warned us about another resident we were visiting with, cautioning that “He will keep you here all day telling stories.” She was giggling as she said it, it was adorable.