Senior living communities often keep residents active with activities such as bingo and outside entertainment. But at one Rockford facility, a homegrown choir has become a highlight. WNIJ's Yvonne Boose reports on how music benefits residents and choir members alike.
Wesley Willows offers independent and assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing. It also gives some residents the opportunity to sing.
About 40 residents are part of a choir that performs twice a year, around Easter and Christmas.
Walking into the community's Castle Town Center is like entering a church on a Sunday morning. More than 100 people listened as the Bards of the Willows performed their "Risen Indeed" concert.
"We love singing for the Lord," choir director Richard Stiltner said. "We love singing about the Lord. And that's what we do here at Christmas and Easter. We review and remember through song the great story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."
He said the choir was started more than a decade ago by his predecessor, Marilyn Smith, whose husband lived in the memory care unit.
"It grew and grew and grew until we got to this point where most of us enjoy music," he said. "We enjoy being in a choir. We've been in a church choir or community choir before, and now we get to do it at Wesley Willows."
Research from Linnaeus University in Sweden finds that singing can significantly improve memories of personal experiences, including time, place and emotions.
Stiltner said music excites the memory.
"We can sing songs we learned way back when we can't remember much else," he said. "I've had a couple of members, unsolicited, this year saying how meaningful this year has been for them, largely because of their participation in the choir.”
Claire Burke, a licensed clinical professional counselor and art therapist at the Institute for Therapy Through the Arts in Evanston, works closely with people with Alzheimer's disease. She said older adults benefit from this kind of cognitive stimulation.
"These older individuals kind of come to life because they get this joy," she said. "They have this sort of wonderment. It often feels like a childlike wonderment of the arts."
Barb Turley, 88, made her way from the choir as the concert ended.
"I love the people in it," she said. "I love the feeling that we get being together. We make lots of singing mistakes, and we get to laugh at it and enjoy it, then work hard and sing it right."
She and her friend Ann Badaluco both sang in choirs when they were younger. Badaluco said singing makes her "feel warm."
"I feel like a person," she said. "I don't know how to describe it, but the words for me, when I sing, it is just like I'm talking to God."
Badaluco's husband died about six months ago. She said that now, she is focusing on doing something for herself, and being in the choir helps.
Resident Lavonne Arendsee said listening to the choir fulfills her.
"It just makes me feel so good," Arendsee said. "And I kind of wish I could sing with them, but I don't have the voice anymore."
As the concert comes to an end, Allen Shuler leads the group in prayer. He's the chaplain and director of spiritual care at Wesley Willows. He said singing brings choir members joy.
"That they are able to share with the community," he said, "their gifts and talents and it resonates — that joy and that sense of community, beloved community."
Shuler then turned back to the choir as they closed with one final song, "Risen Indeed."
The next concert will be held at Christmas time, but the choir will continue to meet weekly for practice.
Copy Edited by Eryn Lent
