My mom is an amazing musician. She has been from an early age – it is just part of who she is. She had a wonderful singing voice as well. She even won a college scholarship after competing and performing. However, her Parkinson’s disease makes it difficult to even speak in a loud voice, much less use her vocal chords to sing. She also has a difficult time articulating words. The last time my mom saw her Parkinson’s doctor, she recommended speech therapy. Today we had a meeting with the therapist. She was a lovely young woman who, ironically, came from a town less than 100 miles from where my parents grew up. Her specialty was working with Parkinson’s patients. She sat my mom down in front of a voice monitor and had her go through a lot of vocal exercises. At the end of the session, she recommended that my mom go through an intensive therapy series and that would help not only her voice, but her facial muscles and throat muscles that control swallowing. In the years that my mom has been treated for the disease, this is the first she has heard of such a thing, though it could be a new option. The therapist said that they should have the goal of my mom singing along at church. That sounded pretty good. You could see my mom perk up by the end of the time, and she was even speaking louder. When we got home, we greeted my dad loudly. For the rest of the night, we all tried to remember to talk loudly. It was comical, but productive at the same time.

I Found God today in hope for improvement for my mom’s voice. It would be great to hear her sing again.