Great stories:

I'll add two from this afternoon. My wife and I went to do a program (she doesn't sing with me, but is part of who I am) at an adult Day Care Center. Don't know if they have places like this everywhere, but they are a wonderful invention. The people who come for the day are well enough not to have to be in a nursing home or health care facility, but end up sitting home alone all day if they didn't have this kind of a program. I had never sung at this place before... It is The Jewish Home for the Aged, although most of the people in the day care program are Christian. I came, intending to do mostly folk music but was warming up, playing Old Rugged Cross on the guitar, and everyone started to sing along. Then, people started asking for other old hymns. I hadn't even been introduced, but I just started playing. We had a rousing time singing together, and they were quick to pick up on choruses of songs they hadn't heard. There was one many in particular who my eye kept coming back to. He was very, very enthusiastic. After having done three of four hymns, I said I was going to do a song I'd written, and he said "You can sing anything.. I just want to hear you!" All through the program, he kept calling out his enthusiasm, and when I talked to him afterward he was bubbling over with enthusiasm. After I finished talking with him, one of the women who works there came over and, "You have no idea what you're done for that man. I have never seen him smile. He just complains about everything."

Two women sitting behind my wife were talking about another woman who came in, feeling terrible. The yahd talked to her and were concerned about her. By the time the program was over, and they had talked to her, they were very excited because the woman was feeling so good. The woman came up and spoke to my wife and told her that when she came in she was feeling very sick, but the music really uplifted her, and now she was feeling really good.

Sometimes you get it right.

Jerry