Music builds a bridge to golden memories

Residents of the Avondale Retirement Home were hopping over the Easter weekend thanks to night of music and golden oldies. 

Avondale Retirement Residence welcomed the Easter long weekend with an ‘Evening of Memories.’

Through music and dance the event looked fondly at the golden age of the typical Avondale resident, putting music to deep seated memories such as the high school senior prom.

“Playing the ‘40’s and the ‘50’s music, people hear this and are taken back to some of the best years of their lives, when they were raising families, and when their spouses hadn’t passed away yet,” said Sherry Sweet, Event Coordinator and Leasing Manager at the residence.

“Music is a very powerful thing that transport[s] people to other places whether you’re 80 or 18.”

Residents such as Dorothy Kerr say events based on her generation’s music hits the right note: “Glenn Miller is somebody that [represented] my youth in Toronto … this jazzy stuff would play all around Toronto in places like the Palace Pier, Embassy Hotel, and even at the Royal York Hotel,” said Dorothy Kerr, a resident at the retirement home.

The event also highlights key issues related to geriatric cognition.

“There’s a big focus on memory recall because it’s the long term memory that seniors still have but the short term memory that people lose first,” said Aviva Sherker-Lifschitz, of Leisure-Ful Life. The program is dedicated to the well being of senior citizens by providing one-on-one personalized care in home recreation service. [what program??]

With music triggering back memories, the event created a sense of nostalgia amongst those present. Miller’s ‘In the Mood’ was a collective hit amidst the jive crowd. “It makes me sad because my husband used to play this song before he died,” said Bobby Gnaedinger, reminiscing about the past.

Lifschitz also suggests brain building games such as Scrabble and word association as something that helps maintain memory.

About this article

By: Tichaona Tapambwa
Posted: Mar 28 2013 10:37 am
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Filed under: Arts & Life Community