Reporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at gdemuth@salina.com.
Hospice of Salina * Kay Pogue Hospice Center
By Gary Demuth
Salina Journal
Even when her listeners are unable to respond, RoJean Loucks knows they can hear her music.
Loucks, Salina, is a therapeutic musician who visits the Hospice of Salina, 730 Holly Lane, each week to play the harp for patients, family members, and hospice staff and volunteers.
The soothing sounds produced by the harp, she said, help dying patients relax and release their emotions -- even when they physically are unable to respond to the music.
"I often take the harp into their rooms and play, and the vibration of the strings is soothing to them," Loucks said. "Sometimes people are at their last stages here and can't respond, but I know they hear me. Hearing is the last thing to go."
Loucks' harp and a grand piano that sits in the facility's large commons room are the centerpieces of the Hospice of Salina's new music program.
The objective of the program is to use piano and harp music to soothe the mind, body and spirit of the facility's patients and their families, as well as hospice staff and volunteers, said Sharon Kibbe, Hospice of Salina chief executive officer.
"Music touches people where medicines sometimes can't," she said. "It brings joy and comfort to them."
Salinan Mary Lou Greenemeyer, a resident for two months, said the music program has made her stay at the hospice more tolerable.
"It calms me down so I can breathe better," she said. "I think all of us here like to listen to music. It brightens your day and makes you feel good."
Donating a harp, piano
The purchase of the harp and piano were made possible through a gift from Lindsborg resident Paul Dahlberg, who in 2005 donated the funds in memory of his late sister, Elaine, who died in November 2001.
Elaine Dahlberg was a hospice volunteer most of her life, her brother said. She also was musically inclined and sang in the Sweet Adelines chorus in Denver and in the Messiah Festival at Lindsborg.
When Paul Dahlberg decided to give an undisclosed financial gift as part of a capital campaign to build a new hospice center, he thought it would be a fitting tribute to his sister to have it used for a music program.
"(Former Hospice of Salina director) Kim Fair told me the new hospice would have a large commons area, and that it would be nice to have music played in there," Dahlberg said.
The facility opened as the Kay Pogue Hospice Center opened in June 2006. Dahlberg's gift was used to buy a harp, and then in August 2007, a grand piano.
Both instruments are displayed in the commons area, a combination kitchen, dining room and living room area where families and friends can visit with hospice residents outside of their rooms.
Sometimes the piano and harp are played by volunteers. Other times, family members or the patients themselves may wish to play a favorite song or melody, Kibbe said.
"Now that we have these instruments, a lot more people sit out here and enjoy the music together," she said.
Ivis Meitler, a volunteer pianist who plays at Salina's Presbyterian Manor and the hospice center, enjoys sharing her piano skills to help residents and their families feel better.
"Music makes (the residents) feel more alert, and sometimes they'll even sing along," she said.
Like I walked into heaven
Music not only helps hospice residents and their families, but it also eases the stress hospice staff and volunteers often feel when dealing with death and dying on a daily basis.
"The music makes everyone feel more lighthearted, which is sometimes difficult in a place like this," said hospice volunteer Judy Rufener. "There's something about music that's calming and inspirational."
Music has helped some families deal with the grieving process when a loved one dies at the hospice, in-patient manager Jennifer Gunelson recalled.
"A patient had just passed away, and the family was bathing the body to prepare it to be taken to the funeral home," she said. "RoJean was in the room playing the harp while they bathed her. Later, her daughter-in-law later came to us weeping. She said that when she walked into the room and heard the harp, it was like she'd walked into heaven."
Kibbe said she hopes to expand the music program in the future and perhaps purchase a portable keyboard to take to patients who are unable to leave their rooms.
For Dahlberg, his contribution to the hospice music program was money well spent.
"(Elaine) would have been very proud," he said.
Reporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at gdemuth@salina.com.
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