Love and music are two of the most powerful entities in the world. They transcend borders, religion, language, governments, and time. I was reminded of the power of love and music by a recent video on Facebook. My cheeks were a little numb from smiling and my eyes were watery after watching this video of Mac and his dad. Before the video, here's a little background on Mac and Ted.
Dad was a singer throughout his life – he was a Butlin's Redcoat and then travelled around singing in clubs around the country. He worked in a factory when he got married and did the occasional bit of singing on side. His nickname is The Songaminute Man – simply because of how many songs he knows.
In the last few years his memory has deteriorated a lot – often not recognising me as his son. Its a horrible illness.
However, now when we've got him singing again he's back in the room. It's these moments that we treasure.
The plan is to share as much of Dad's singing as we can and hopefully it will help raise money to fund the work of the Alzheimer's Society – more specifically to go towards paying for a person at the end of the phoneline to help other people like us. – justgiving.com
Sit back and take note how love and music are both so powerful, especially when together.
If you have had a member of your family whom has suffered from Alzheimer's, you know what occurred before and after this video was filmed. To have a parent not know who you are, to see someone not being himself, to realize that nothing can be done to improve the situation, it is heartbreaking.
During the video, I was watching both Mac and his dad, back and forth. It was hard to tell who was having more fun. His dad was singing, enjoying the moment, but Mac, he had his dad back, may it be one song at a time, he had his dad back.
We've seen some great carpool karaoke in the past, but it's all been for show and ratings and social media hits. Mac is sharing his love and music and his singing with his dad not for the fame, but for fundraising.
He has started a justgiving page where he is taking donations under the Songaminute man account. We need to tell Mac that he needs to up his target a little bit. It was set at 1,000 pounds. Let's see how much we can make that tally grow.
Please go over to his page (justgiving.com/fundraising/songaminute) and donate. One of the donators gave 5 British pounds and had the same sentiments I had, except my time was with my grandfather 10 years ago and now my grandmother is suffering from the disease.
Songaminute man is what they call Ted, mac's father, because of all the songs he knows so you know there is more than one video out there. To see more of Ted and Mac, head on over to Songaminute man's Facebook Page here.
Besides Mac being easy on the eyes, he's also going through something I may be dealing with very soon as my parents are starting their glorious 70s. Alzheimers is something many of us have dealt with already and many may experience with a husband in our future.
Thanks again Mac! And Ted, keep on singing. It brings us and your son great joy.
absolutley love the time
absolutley love the time spent– together– i have worked with many elderly n dementia patients– alzheimers is a sad loss for the family of their loved 1– it breaks a heart!!!! myself my own grandmother who helped raise me has lost a lot of memories- but i do know she still enjoys the good ol tunes' i hear yours and i say this a lucky moment– i envy you for your time- my grandma(nana) now resides in a home for the elderly i cant sing loud like she likes but i do sneak her out to my car- crank on the oldies she enjoys and see my nana as she will alsways be— this amazing voice from my childhood– keep up the posts an thanks so much for sharing:)
Loved it! Lots of great
Loved it! Lots of great memories of my stepfather who.used to stand up at Restaurants and tell the crowd that he wanted to sing them a song and then he'd sing My Way by Frank Sinatra and it was just phenomenal! We used to hide under the table or behind our napkins….now I would sit and listen all day if he were here! Thanks for the smiles…can't stop singing along with you!