I Could Have Hummed All Night

Like so many who have dementia, my mother who has little memory of anything still responds to music with a startling capacity for recall.

Mum must recently have heard music from My Fair Lady at her nursing home because several weeks ago, without prompting, she hummed I Could Have Danced All Night at me, in perfect tune and complete with chorus and verse. In fact she hummed the tune at me four times in succession. It gave me pleasure to hear her enjoyment at that moment.

Scroll forward two weeks and I am sitting with Mum struggling as usual to draw conversation from her and resigned to another morning of reading silently whilst she sits snoozing alongside me. For some reason I thought to hum that tune to her. Mum sat looking impassively back at me. No reaction to the music.

I was about to return to my book when I decided to hum the tune again. This time Mum joined in with a big smile and the two of us hummed away loudly surrounded by elderly dementia sufferers. It would have seemed a curious sight to visiting onlookers and staff but it was a moment of enjoyment for us.