A song for the ages

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This article was published 03/02/2019 (2448 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Undeterred by the age difference, a tiny participant in a music class quietly offers adults a chance to add their beat to the melodies of the room.

As the intergenerational group sings “Rippity, rippity, I can play my drum,” four-year-old Hela circles the room with a hand drum, presenting it in turn to several senior citizens in the room.

Sometimes, the senior drummer keeps time to the song, and other times they keep their own rhythm, but that doesn’t matter, since the goal is creating a musical community of preschoolers and residents of a personal care home, explains Kathy Clague, therapeutic recreational facilitator at Pembina Place Mennonite Personal Care Home.

“The value is bridging the gap between the generations,” she says of the class which combines participants from Prairie Children’s Centres and Pembina Place, both located in the six storey housing complex at 285 Pembina Hwy., also known as Deaf Centre Manitoba.

Thought to be the only one of its kind in Winnipeg, this half-hour Friday morning class unites preschoolers and senior citizens through silly action songs and classic folk tunes, such as She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain. Sometimes they just sing to the beat of a hand drum or the tap of some sticks and for other songs, music teacher Michele Barr adds recorded music as an accompaniment.

“What music does is brings us together, and it brings us in the here and now,” explains Barr, who pioneered the concept for the class 15 years ago.

Initially hired to teach music at the daycare centre, Barr included seniors in this class because Pembina Place was located just across the hall. She expanded the repertoire to include songs older folks might know, as well as short and repetitive action songs.

“For some people, especially if they have dementia and memory issues, the songs are in there,” she says of how residents join in with familiar songs from their past.

Three years ago, Barr, an ordained Lutheran deacon, took on the half-time role of chaplain at the 57-resident facility, just about the same time funding stopped for the daycare music program. Since she was already employed at Pembina Place, she kept up the class, which meets in the appropriately-named Echo Room, adjacent to the second-floor dining room.

On this cold Friday morning, 15 residents are seated in a large circle around the perimeter of the room, eagerly awaiting the children’s arrival.

“I hope that little blonde girl with the curly hair comes,” says one resident before the class.

“She sure can beat those drums.”

As seven children, along with two daycare workers, burst into the room, Barr invites them to sit on the floor forming a small circle inside the larger circle of seniors. She begins singing an action song, encouraging everyone to stomp, clap and wiggle along with the music.

Clague walks between the two circles, encouraging residents to sing and perform the actions referenced in the song. Some do, some don’t, but most have smiles on their faces as they watch the children.

Squeezing into the space halfway through the class, William, who doesn’t want his last name published, claps and sings along to multiple verses of If you’re happy and you know it.

“Music is good for me because it’s got a beat and a tempo,” he says in a quiet voice after the class.

At 83, the great-grandfather appreciates the energy the children bring to the space.

“I like to get into it,” he says, demonstrating some of the actions in the songs.

“It’s nice to see (the children) and you can get attached to them.”

After all the instruments are collected and the last notes have faded, the children linger in the room, with some outgoing ones interacting with the residents. Hela makes one last circuit around the circle, offering her hand to every adult for a final farewell.

Three-year-old Finnigan, dressed in a pair of black pants printed with dinosaur skeletons, is a hit with Joyce Vabiuk, 86.

“He loves his pants,” she says, adding both the children and the music make her happy.

“Kids make all the difference.”

“This (class) is good and it makes you laugh,” add Roland Remillard, 82, who attends the class with his longtime friend Rose Manning, 94.

The blessings and benefits flow both ways with this class, says Prairie Children’s Centres executive director Kathie Gagnon. As much as the adults appreciate the children, the children also benefit from meeting older adults.

“They take the time, they stop and listen,” Gagnon says of how the residents interact with the children.

“They pay attention and enjoy them.”

In return, the children accept the residents for who they are, and see beyond the walkers, wheelchairs, and oxygen tanks, says Clague.

“The children don’t judge. There’s no pressure here,” she says of the music class.

“I think it helps children not to have fear of the elderly.”

And that 30 minutes of singing and clapping together creates bonds that go beyond a few shared songs, especially in a building with many locked doors to keep residents safe, says Gagnon.

“We’re all in the same building, and it’s building that sense of community.”

Winnipeg journalist Brenda Suderman writes about the many ways Winnipeggers connect with each other to build community.

brenda@suderman.com