(Photo by Tania Woodward)
Jim Sorer got his guitar and harmonica this morning; I brought it over to the Mansion, an assisted care facility, first thing in the morning.
Sorer, an old bluegrass musician and a devoted follower of Hank Williams, has been pining away for his music ever since he got to the Mansion during the pandemic.
He’s already playing the harmonic now, and I’m heading back to the Mansion shortly to video Jim playing the guitar. Thanks to the Army of Good for rushing some donations to get Jim his music back.
Jim is a great character, the real deal. He has (approximately) 10 children and too many X-wives to remember. He was something of a recluse in the Mansion; he rarely came out of his room. He’s out now.
I received about $400 in donations, thanks, and that covered most of what we needed. I got him a Yahama guitar, a harmonica, a harmonica holder (a/la Bob Dylan), and a Yahama accessory kit.
Thanks so much for your support. Thanks for selling out the Mansion Amazon Wish List yesterday, learning games for the elderly and those with dementia.
With Jim, I have the feeling we are offering him rebirth. It feels very good, the Mansion aides are very excited.
We are doing serious good this week. I’m eager to go and hear Jim play his guitar, sing and play the harmonic. More later.
I hope more musicians and singers come out of the walls there. Music is a gift of humanity. I have seen pretty severely demented people still be able to sing and know the words even when the ability to form sentences has been lost. There are good research studies backing this up. One that has gotten a lot of publicity involved a man named Henry and ipods, I think googling just that will bring it up.
Good on ya!
? I can just see it now. The Mansion band, (AKA The Bedlam Boppers), coming to life.
I would love to hear him sing some Hank Williams songs. Used to listen to those songs so long ago on cassettes and never replaced them with cds.
You’ll get your chance once he’s tuned up his guitar to his satisfaction..