Golden oldies

For residents at Bridgewater Memory Care, recollections so often fail them. But when Margie Hartsfield shows up to sing old gospel, country and rock-and-roll songs accompanied by recorded music or her keyboard, the lyrics to those golden oldies – and even some fancy dance moves – come flooding back.

For an hour, it is as if what was taken from them has been restored.

They sing with gusto into Hartfield’s microphone. They laugh. They joke. Some dance without inhibition. And all of them remember.

They remember that thrill on Blueberry Hill and them old cotton fields back home. They even remember popular catch phrases from decades ago.

When Hartsfield told a woman at Bridgewater on Tuesday afternoon that she was “the cat’s meow,” another resident quipped, “Or the cat’s pajamas!”

Both of those terms were used by hipsters in the 1920s.

“They want to live,” Harts-field said after her lively afternoon session at Bridgewater, formerly Arbor House Memory Care. The session had included 1950s rock-and-roll songs such as “Shake, Rattle and Roll” and a new gospel song she is teaching them, “I Won’t Walk Without Jesus.”

It could be said that residents at Bridgewater and other area nursing homes are blessed by Hartsfield because of her own refusal to walk without Jesus.

PHONE MESSAGES FROM GOD

Most people who pray don’t receive answers from God through phone messages, but it could argued that Hartsfield is an exception.

She feels she received a distinct message from the Almighty about 13 years ago. Several of them in fact.

Here’s how it happened:

Hartsfield had worked for a home health care service but quit to care for her ailing mother. When she worked in home health care, she was always assigned clients who had Alzheimer’s or dementia. They just seemed to respond to her for some reason, more so than for other caregivers.

During that time, and also during the period when she cared for her mother, she would occasionally volunteer to sing for people.

When Hartsfield’s mother passed away, Hartsfield knew she had to go back to work to earn money. Her singing would probably have to go by the wayside.

One night she said a prayer before going to bed.

“I said, ‘Lord, if you want me to stay in music, open the door and I’ll go,” Hartsfield said. “I went straight to sleep and didn’t worry about it.”

The next morning, she awoke to find five voice messages from staffers at nursing homes. They each wanted to know if they could pay her to come in regularly to sing for their clients.

“I had never been to these places, so I know that was from upstairs,” Hartsfield said.

Bridgewater’s executive director, Tiffany McAdams, said that Hartsfield’s impact on elderly clients is “great.”

“Really what she does is she just brings joy to the residents,” she said. “They will get excited when she is playing.”

HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY?

Hartsfield showed up for her 2 p.m. session at Bridgewater dressed in a green shirt that bore the word “Thankful” on the front.

“We have so much to be thankful for,” she told a group of almost 20 residents. “And I’m thankful for you.”

During the hour-long music session, Hartsfield joked with the residents, hugged them and walked among the rows of chairs and wheelchairs, holding out the microphone to spotlight each person’s enthusiastic singing. One woman who had been dozing in her wheelchair woke and sang heartily at Hartsfield’s coaching.

When Hartsfield spotted a woman walking down a hallway and encouraged her to come join the group, a resident called out, “Get your buns in here!”

No one could resist “Amazing Grace,” “Chapel of Love,” “Oh boy!,” “You Are My Sunshine” and “I’ll Fly Away.” After singing “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You,” a song written in 1945 by Scotty Wiseman, some of the Bridgewater residents were able to name artists who have performed the popular song over the years.

There was toe tapping and dancing. Several residents participated in the Hokey Pokey.

“Somebody already blew out a shoe!” Hartsfield joked.

Another of her comedic lines was, “I’m 16, but I’ve been sick a lot.”

When one man wandered to the front of the room and appeared lost and disoriented, a staffer gently took him by the hand and led him back to his seat.

At one point, a woman on the front row told Hartsfield, “You’re doing such a good job.”

Hartsfield closed out the hour by telling the group that she would be back on Thursday, no matter that it would be Thanksgiving Day.

“I love every one of you,” she said. “From the bottom of my heart.”

Hartsfield told the Hood County News: “It’s just kindness and fun and humor. And love don’t hurt. Those hugs are worth a million dollars to me. I just go in there and I’m me. I’m definitely not anything to look at, but I do have good teeth because I just bought ‘em.”

RICH REWARDS

In the years since she began taking her recordings and keyboard to nursing homes and memory care facilities, Hartsfield’s client list has grown.

Today she visits eight locations in Hood County, as well as facilities in Hico, Hamilton, Rising Star, Glen Rose and Stephenville, where she lives. She has 12-15 bookings each week.

The pay isn’t much, but it puts gas in her car and pays the electric bill. And not all pay is measured in dollars and cents anyway.

Though some of the residents may not be able to remember the face of a loved one or what they had for lunch, they remember Harts-field and the joy she brings.

“I want to thank you for being here,” one Bridgewater resident said. “You make our day wonderful.”

kcruz@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 258.