"I was a bit surprised to find that the care facility was looking for something like an hour to an hour and a half."

That sounds too long to me. I have a friend who was activities co-ordinator for a nursing home, and she warned me before a 30-minute gig that some patients would get up and go simply because sitting for that long was painful.

Always request that someone from the staff be there. I did a gig once where a patient backed up his wheelchair suddenly and hit the hand of a woman in another wheelchair. She blazed up in anger and started shouting. I had to stop the show and ask the reception desk to find someone to deal with it all.

There was a good moment that time, as well. I sang the Berryman song "When the Whatchacallits Blossom by the Back Porch" and explained that the song shows how many words we have for when we can't think of the right word. Although these residents were supposed to be "very bad," they listened attentively, and one woman said, "I liked your song about words."

Hmmm. I believe the true name of that song is "Forget me not."