Press Reviews - Oregon & The West April 21 2001 |
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Oregon & The West
April 21 2001 Carried Away by the music By Alice Tallmadge Correspondant for the Oregonian A pair of Eugene harpist are rare in using soothing melodies to help the dying ease their grasp on life. EUGENE Jane Williams is certain her 87-year-old mother had a perfect death. In her last hour she was surrounded by family, friends and music from two harpists who filled her room with a cascade of ancient, soothing melodies. “The music eased her tremendously. My mother´s whole being relaxed into the bed” said Williams, a nurse at Sacred Heart Medical Center inn Eugene. Her mother, Jessie Finch, died 10 minutes after the music ended. . Williams knew that dying is hard work, and that for some, harp music can make the transition easier. What she didn’t expect was how the gentle, penetrating sounds would affect her. “It was like arms,” she said." lt was this wonderful thing supporting me and holding me. I don’t have words to say how much it helped.” |
| The two
harpists who played for her mother, Sister Vivian Ripp and Loraine
McCarthy, are trained music thanatologists who work out of the Pastoral
Care department at Sacred Heart Medical Center. Both have been trained
to use specially selected music to help the dying ease their holds
on life. The women, whose nondenominational vigil is called Strings of Compassion, do not play familiar songs or even well-known religious hymns. “We do not perform,” emphasized Sister Ripp, who belongs to the order of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. “We use the elements of the music to help the person move within and begin to let go.” The sense of hearing is the last sense to fade in the dying process, Sister Ripp said. Even when a patient appears unresponsive and has ceased speaking, “music is able to reach them at a deep level.” Sister Ripp, 58, and McCarthy, 72, have played more than 550 vigils in the past four years. They play for hospital patients whose prognosis is six months or less, are receiving palliative care and who have a “do not resuscitate” order. Most often, they hold vigils in the last days of a patient’s life. During the vigils, Sister Ripp and McCarthy focus their attention on the dying person and the family members present. They choose the music according to what they see. “Some people, where they are in their grief, aren’t able to hold music that is too intimate,” Sister Ripp said. Others are able to go into the music in a very deep way, to allow it to bring beauty, a sense of the sacred and relaxation.” |
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