In my active church days I joined a group of singers (primarily choir members) who each Christmas visited a local nursing home and the residences of members who were shut-ins. While our carol renditions were always graciously received, I often wondered just how much our "invasions" were actually appreciated and what impact our singing may have had. The "Threshold Singers" idea, however, has taken this concept to a different level and has given me reason to rethink my assumptions.
"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light". -- Dylan Thomas
This renowned 20th Century Welsh poet wrote these lines of verse as his own father was dying. It reflects Thomas’s aggressive approach to that inevitable end-of-life journey which every human must someday take. His own death at age 39 came in New York City, hospitalized and in a coma. One wonders whether, despite his avowed admonition to do otherwise, he went “gentle into the night.”
Most of us would prefer to die peacefully. "The recent growth of hospice and palliative care resources in our region makes this possibility more likely," says Rev. Bob Johnston of Saugeen Shores. "In western Canada, services available to the dying can now include musical groups called Threshold Singers. While I initially assumed music would be more appropriate for a wedding than a deathbed, I quickly learned my assumption was misguided."
Threshold Singers are small groups of 2-4 vocalists who offer their gift of gentle choir music at the bedside of a person on the “threshold” between life and death. Members are chosen for an ability to hold their part in harmony, carry a note and maintain pitch. More importantly, each volunteer must bring a caring, calming presence to ease a patient’s transition from this world to whatever lies beyond.
Threshold Singers began in California. In 2001, Kate Munger and a group of friends were helping to care for a patient dying with AIDS. Along with providing practical assistance with meals and cleaning, she recognized that singing at his bedside proved to be comforting.
About 10 years later, Munger developed and organized small musical groups to deliver this complementary component within existing palliative care services. Currently about 150 Threshold Choirs are providing this service in the United States and more recently, six in Canada
"To be honest, if I were in my last weeks of life trapped in some hospital bed and forced to endlessly listen to most contemporary 'music,' I would already feel I was in hell! Threshold Singers provides a far different service. They create their own songs, lyrics related to the patient’s threshold of life and death experience. Their music is presented in the form of gentle lullabies," Johnston explains.
Each choir enters a patient’s life only when invited. While remaining sensitive to the spiritual dimension of dying, they bring no religious affiliation. There is no cost for their services. When interviewed, patients describe a sense of reduced pain and anxiety. Breathing becomes more regular and relaxed.
Caregivers and bedside family members can also receive comfort and strength from the presence of these musicians. What takes place is clearly not a performance but the voluntary presence of a small group of compassionate singers briefly entering into a patient’s end-of-life journey and walking with them on that road.
You can access saskatoon@thresholdchoirs.org which provides a link to a Charles Adler Tonight podcast interview with Karla Combres, the founder of a threshold choir group in that city. Other links on the same site lead to a Global News video and CBC interview featuring the work of these singers.
Even Dylan Thomas, who lived a reckless life, may have finally found peace in his own dying days if surrounded by such an angelic choir. My hope is that our own Western Ontario region will one day have this resource available as we prepare to cross “into that good night,” accompanied by gentle lullabies to ease us on our way.
I honestly believe that there is something about music that penetrates the soul of a dying person -- when words fail.
There is a Threshold Singers group forming in nearby Owen Sound but I'm not just dying to hear them sing...Not yet!
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