This week is Dementia Awareness Week.
I’ve played many concerts in Care Homes and Memory Cafes, mostly to women suffering the ravages of some form of Dementia. and I’ve always found the experience extremely moving and humbling. I wrote this after a visit to the Abbeyfield Nursing Home in Taunton.
The first time I saw Margaret she told me how much she loved her job. We talked about my music and the sweet memories it brought back to her. She told me she had to go as she was off to visit another school. The nurse gently ushered her into the tea room and explained that she had stopped being a school inspector 10 years ago but didn’t realise. She told me that Margaret wouldn’t even remember this conversation in five minute. I saw Margaret again when I played the same nursing home. She smiled sweetly at me but it was clear that she didn’t remember me. At the end of the concert she shuffled off to her room. No words this time, no animated conversation. Just sweet, quiet resignation.
Reg x
Waiting in line for the rain gathering pieces of blue
Frightened of cars and there’s too many stars
And I’m counting my footsteps to you
Somebody loved me ok I’m searching my mind to find who
So send me to bed if I lied when I said
That I’d always remember you
Mary I don’t know my age anymore
My Mother just said I’m a hundred and four
Listen to me, leave me alone
Mary I can’t find my way back home
Everything’s in the wrong place everything’s broken in two
I’ll start the repair when I find out just where
And I’m counting my footsteps to you
This place is just like a hotel or a prison sometimes I’m not sure
For my postal address try ‘Just Sleeping’ I guess
Or the weeping behind any door
Mary I’m lost and there’s enemies near
Speaking in voices I don’t want to hear
Listen to me, leave me alone
Mary I can’t find my way back home
I’ve come here from so far away and my poor brain is broken in two
But the scent of your hair sometimes hangs in the air
And I’m counting my footsteps to you
Counting My Footsteps To You – video
(June 26 2013 on the balcony at Sidmouth CC a fundraising gig)
