Different Voices, Same Choir
It's always a pleasure to play music and sing for patients in my work as a hospital clown. Recently I had two occasions that reminded me of this musical privilege.
Dr. Ruby and I play for a patient in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, NICU. The patients in this unit are exceptionally young. The babies in this unit tend to go straight from birth to this unit. We play music to the patients and their families in the NICU. The songs here are lullabies and other sweet, gentle songs.
On this day, we played a version of the Everly Brothers' song, "All I Want to do is Dream." As we sing to an infant, I see an older man enter the unit from across the room. He has a pleasant demeanor. As he got closer, I recognized him as one of the doctors here at the NICU. He's always been a friendly presence for us in this unit. He is a person of influence on the hospital floor. He smiles as he hears the music. He recognizes the Everly Brothers' song "All I Want to Do is Dream." Then, to our pleasure, he begins to sing along with us. He joins us without missing a beat, like a member of the band who just steps up to the mic to sing in unison on the verse. He sings along to the line… "I love you so, and that is why, whenever I want you, all I have to do is dream." I'm playing my ukulele, Dr. Ruby is playing his violin. The doctor joins us to make a trio of musicians singing to a neonatal patient in unison.
On another day, I was with Dr. tiny as we visited a preteen girl and her mother in their hospital room. Dr. tiny, I decided to sing for her. This song was You are my sunshine. I played my ukulele while dr. tiny kept the beat with a shaker. As I sing, I look at the patient and see that she is mouthing the song's lyrics. Noticing this, I stopped singing at the end of the verse, " You make me happy when skies are…" I stopped all the music and paused for a second. I repeated this again. I sang, "You make me happy when skies are"…Pause… There was an awkward silence. She looked at me, expecting me to finish the lyric. I said, "What comes next?" She glared at me with a smile, then finished the line… "You make me happy when skies are GRAY!". I said, "Oh, Okay," and then I continued. Later I paused again after the line .." please don't take my sunshine"…. This time, she knew what to expect, so she answered quickly, completing the lyric…" please don't take my sunshine AWAY!
At this point, I stopped everything again and said. "Why am I singing? You should be singing all the lyrics to this song." She smiled and said, "Okay!" Dr. Tiny and I began to play the music. This time the patient sang the lyrics. She knew all the words and filled the room with her beautiful soprano voice.
After the song, Mom looked at dr. tiny and me. Tears filled her eyes. Mom took a deep breath, put her hands to her chest, and said, "Thank you. Thank you for making her smile."
It's times like this that I value most in our work. The medical staff, family, and clowns working together.
We are different voices in the same choir.