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<\/p>\nBy J.M. GARCIA | Uptown News<\/p>\n
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, jazz musician Marcia Forman makes her way through the day center of St. Paul\u2019s PACE, a medical program for senior citizens. Carrying a saxophone case in one hand and a satchel stuffed with songbooks in the other, she walks toward a piano, greeting patients as they eat lunch. Unpacking her saxophone, Forman runs a hand over the piano keys. A few of the agency\u2019s patients gravitate toward her. One complains he ate too much.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAre you full?\u201d Forman asks unpacking her songbooks. \u201cMe too. I had a big lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n
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For nearly 12 years, as an adjunct professor for San Diego Community College Continuing Education Emeritus Program, Forman, 62, has played music for senior citizens in programs that provide physical rehabilitation and care for patients with Alzheimer\u2019s and dementia.<\/p>\n
She first played for the elderly at Windsor Gardens Convalescent Center of San Diego in 1985. She started with \u201cSatin Doll\u201d by Duke Ellington and noticed people tapping their toes and thought, \u201cThis is it. I want to bring people back. I want to make people happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat time do you start?\u201d asks Travis, a patient at St. Paul\u2019s PACE.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne o\u2019clock,\u201d Forman tells him. \u201cShould I play Thelonius Monk, \u2018Round Midnight\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of our greatest players,\u201d Travis replies. \u201cI saw Charlie Parker at the Oakland Auditorium when I was 13 in 1948.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWow,\u201d Forman says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a long time ago,\u201d Travis tells her.<\/p>\n
Forman begins playing the clarinet, eyes closed, concentrating. The South Park resident hopes to bring back memories to her audience through songs they haven\u2019t heard in years \u2014 memories of husbands and wives when they were young and dancing the jitterbug. \u201cSentimental Journey\u201d is a favorite. So is \u201cGod Bless America.\u201d \u201cDowntown\u201d by Petula Clark brings patients to their feet. Occasionally, they dance. Forman has updated her songbooks to include The Carpenters, The Beatles and other 1960s and 1970s bands. She sees more and more baby boomers among the patients. Like the men and women she entertains, her hair, too, has gotten grayer. Sometimes, she forgets a note in a song. Everyone is getting older.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOK, guys,\u201d Forman says when she finishes \u201cRound Midnight,\u201d \u201cChristmas songs. \u2018Tis the season, you know. Or, we could play jazz. Up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJazz,\u201d a woman named Joy says.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwist my arm. How about \u2018Stardust\u2019?\u201d Forman suggests. \u201cIt was my father\u2019s favorite. The only song he could play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes he still play it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Forman points skyward.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp there and through me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Forman grew up in New York state listening to jazz. She enjoyed its improvisational style and took up the saxophone when she was 10. She liked the sound of the instrument in the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll songs she heard, the way its sound traveled, the different pitches and notes. In 1980, she moved to San Diego and worked at The Big Kitchen, a South Park restaurant her sister Judy had just bought at the time. Forman worked and participated in the jazz band of San Diego City College. She would later meet and marry Floyd Fronius, a violinist. These days, on Sunday mornings, Forman jams at the restaurant with The Marcia Forman Band, a group she formed in 2005.<\/p>\n
Sometimes seniors drain her. Their frailty hits her. One day they\u2019re here, the next they\u2019re not. Like one 90-year-old man. He knew all the words of almost every song she played. \u201cCarolina in the Morning\u201d was a favorite. He\u2019d get up and dance. He died in May. Just like that.<\/p>\n
Forman knew an Alzheimer\u2019s patient for 10 years before she was suddenly transferred to another facility. That was hard \u2014 a decade is a long time. Forman could still recall the details of the Filipino woman\u2019s life: Her father had been a pilot for President Ferdinand Marcos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t done \u2018Jingle Bells,\u2019\u201d Forman says. \u201cWe should at least do \u2018Jingle Bells.\u2019 You know, \u2018dashing through the snow.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you come tomorrow?\u201d Travis asks.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I\u2019m here just on Mondays and Tuesdays.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to rain tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know, and I have a gig this evening. Darn it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before she starts in on \u201cJingle Bells,\u201d Forman noticed a woman she hasn\u2019t greeted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s your name?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen you for two days and I didn\u2019t know your name. Nice to meet you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy left hand is kind of numb.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cIs it?\u201d Forman says. \u201cBut you look good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, you do.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the mid 2000s, Forman would travel to New York to visit her parents, who were then in a nursing home. Friends played music for them and she would join them in renditions of \u201cSentimental Journey\u201d and \u201cYou Are My Sunshine.\u201d Whenever she plays \u201cMisty,\u201d she thinks of her mother. It was her favorite song.<\/p>\n
When she completes \u201cJingle Bells,\u201d a patient named Ed tells Forman that he has finished his rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re leaving me?\u201d Forman says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can walk on my own now,\u201d Ed says.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongratulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stands to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cWait,\u201d Forman says. \u201cEd, you have to hug me.\u201d<\/p>\n
They embrace and she gives him a wide, encouraging smile. Back at the piano, she plays the Jimmy McHugh tune, \u201cI Can\u2019t Give You Anything But Love, Baby.\u201d A patient named Peggy starts singing. Forman believes she makes a difference. How much and for how long she can\u2019t say. But when she\u2019s with them, she makes them happy. And when they leave, they tell their families, \u201cMarcia was here today.\u201d Just when she thinks they\u2019re not paying attention, they let her know they are. She can\u2019t measure that, either, but they make a difference in her life, too.<\/p>\n
The Marcia Forman band plays at The Blarney Stone Pub in Clairemont every other Tuesday and at The Big Kitchen every Sunday morning.<\/p>\n