Does anyone know SWC personally?

[ScrabbCuse]

I have played guitar since I was 13. I retired 13 years ago, and for the first 4 years of retirement I volunteered through a hospice agency playing guitar for hospice patients in small, assisted living facilities. I would play once a week and had regular facilities that I would visit. I would go to each place every other week. Often, they all knew I was coming...some even had me in their calendars...and they would gather in the main living area. I'd play solo acoustic stuff for about 40 minutes, and ended up arranging and playing the songs from the 1940's that the patients loved. After that, I'd pass out lyric sheets and we would have a sing along for 20 minutes.

I used to tell them "you can feel lousy before I come and you can feel lousy after I leave. While I'm here, however, we are going to have fun." And have fun we did.

One of my favorite memories was of a woman who had only been in hospice a short time. I noticed she wasn't out with the rest of the folks so afterwards I went to her room. She said she had been too tired to come out so I stayed, chatted, and played for her for a while. This was in October and I told her "In two months, I'll be playing Christmas music for you." she replied "Oh, I love Christmas music."

I told her that there was no law that said I couldn't play Christmas music in October and asked what her favorites were. I played them for her and then left her to get her nap. She passed two days later and her daughter called the hospice agency to say how happy she was that her Mom had gotten to hear Christmas songs one more time.

Doing the volunteer work at hospice was one of the most rewarding things I have ever had the privilege of doing.

Thanks for all you do. A few years ago, my sister (a Cuse alum) passed from cancer in her 40’s. The last few weeks of her life, someone would stop by her hospital bed and play the guitar and she really appreciated it. He was even in the room while she passed playing her favorite songs. It was a bright spot in what was otherwise a terrible time. It can’t be easy seeing all these people suffering but know that you are appreciated and giving those who need it a brief bit of happiness and comfort.

 

[Dinkyspond]

To have such an affect on someone in their last days is so powerful.

I remember about 15 years ago when I was visiting my mom at a combination nursing home/rehab center.
I had brought my maltese dog Gizmo with me who literally spread sunshine and joy to anyone he met.

Well, I was in the hall leaving and ran into a resident who asked to pet Gizmo. As I was out there, a lady came running down the hall and asked me if Gizmo could come down to her grandmother's room. She told me that she had been pretty much staring into space and not interacting with anyone for days, Incredibly depressed and withdrawn.

Well, I put Gizmo on the bed and he laid next to her licking her hand. The lady literally for about 15 minutes became the grandma they all remembered. She petted Gizmo, talked to him and laughed. Gizmo even kissed her over and over again. She was so happy and there was not a dry eye in the room.

I found out 5 days later that she had died. I like to think that Gizmo brought her a little joy.

Gizmo was just an incredibly friendly dog but there are people out there who bring therapy dogs to various facilities. They can connect with people in ways another human just cant.

The power of pet therapy never ceases to amaze me.

 

[miamicuse]

As a guitarist, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper’s cemetery in the back country. As I was not familiar with the backroads in Ontario, I got lost.

I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch.

I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn’t know what else to do, so I started to play.

The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I’ve never played before for this homeless man.

And as I played ‘Amazing Grace,’ the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished, I packed up my guitar and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full.

As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say,

“I never seen nothin’ like that before and I’ve been putting in septic tanks for twenty years.”

Apparently, I’m still lost…

OK yeah, that's a joke, just wanted to lighten up the heavy hearts a little bit.

I never met Steve, but I read his summary of games and coaches' show every week for years now, it's part of the ritual now. Even with the team's disappointing that prompted me to skip a few games, I read his recap and upside/downside to get caught up. His reports are always based on facts and data and unlike some of us (myself included) who tend to bring out the pitch forks after a loss wanting someone fired or benched, SWC is always level headed and calm. I saw people kept tossing out questions to ask the coach in SWC's threads, questions they themselves were too chicken to ask themselves, but SWC never took the bait LOL and instead provided the call in info to them instead.

Thank you SWC75 the bored historian!

and thank you bballbeadle for the update.

 

[DoctorBombay]

I read this and got a little teary. There's a lot of good in this world. Thank you.

Yeah...somebody's cutting onions in my living room.

 

[DoctorBombay]

As a guitarist, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper’s cemetery in the back country. As I was not familiar with the backroads in Ontario, I got lost.

I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch.

I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn’t know what else to do, so I started to play.

The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I’ve never played before for this homeless man.

And as I played ‘Amazing Grace,’ the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished, I packed up my guitar and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full.

As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say,

“I never seen nothin’ like that before and I’ve been putting in septic tanks for twenty years.”

Apparently, I’m still lost…

OK yeah, that's a joke, just wanted to lighten up the heavy hearts a little bit.

I never met Steve, but I read his summary of games and coaches' show every week for years now, it's part of the ritual now. Even with the team's disappointing that prompted me to skip a few games, I read his recap and upside/downside to get caught up. His reports are always based on facts and data and unlike some of us (myself included) who tend to bring out the pitch forks after a loss wanting someone fired or benched, SWC is always level headed and calm. I saw people kept tossing out questions to ask the coach in SWC's threads, questions they themselves were too chicken to ask themselves, but SWC never took the bait LOL and instead provided the call in info to them instead.

Thank you SWC75 the bored historian!

and thank you bballbeadle for the update.

You're a maniac...and going to hell.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

I believe it was said that Mike Waters set it up.

If so, very generous gesture.

And first class of JB to call him.

 

[suttree]

So, many of us are in a certain age group that these things are happening now with greater frequency. I, too, have been fighting cancer for close to 3 years now. Mine started out as something seemingly insignificant, had surgery, they thought they got it all, but (of course) they didn't. And it spread, and it took about 9 months to get rid of the original set of tumors, three or four in all, in close proximity.

I was clear for about a year, and then they started coming back in September around Labor Day. My original cancer metastasized, and I've had a dozen more malignant tumors since then. Ten have been removed, two to go. I've had doctors visits pretty much once or twice a week for the last 6 months. Pretty much a new tumor every couple weeks, for half a year. I've had chemo, but so far I still have my hair! LOL

So, I reached out to Steve privately, to say, "hey, I'm going through something right now, too" and tried to offer some encouragement and hope.

The way I phrased it, though, went over like a lead balloon. My message missed the mark (as you often see on this forum!).

I said to him, "I've decided to make cancer my friend." What I meant by this was this: I know it's going to be with me for a while. I'm going to need to pay attention to this, and try to live with it. I have to embrace it, rather than be angry, because we know that when our body is in a positive place, we heal more effectively. Stress and anger and bullshit hurt the healing process. It's kind of a Buddhist outlook.

But he was not in a place of acceptance at that time (you know, on the "Stages of Grief" scale), he was angry about his tumor, and that's part of the process. It's totally understandable.

He wrote me back, though, and while he wasn't willing to accept his tumor as his "friend" (so understandably!), he told me that his brother is also going through something similar to me. And he said he would pass along my perspective, in hopes it could be helpful.

So, I wish Steve all the best. We're not really personal friends, but we have been "intimate strangers" on this board for the last 30 years. Many of us are like that. CTO and the Fine Mess gang have grown this community so much in person over all these years. I am grateful to you all for your friendship and community over the years.

I'm doing fine, knock on wood. Hope to continue to do so for many years to come. If you sense I'm irrationally angry sometimes in my posts, I hope you give me some grace and forgiveness, and keep this is mind. Namaste!

Matt, we go a long ways back, even if I've regressed into a lurker these last several years because so many other things in life have taken over. But I wanted you to know that I'm sorry to hear that cancer has come into your life, and that I'm thinking about you and pulling for you like crazy, old friend. From one Matt to another, keep up the good fight.