A Hallowell Sing

This evening we again did something we have not done for some time: we made a Hallowell presentation at a Hospice Volunteers Training Session. Hallowell is a part of the larger Hospice organization, and it is important that volunteers - the people who actually sit at the bedsides of people who are dying - know about Hallowell and what we offer - namely, coming in sort of anonymously and singing quiet songs at the bedside, often with family members gathered around, and often with the hospice volunteer being included in that gathering. So five of us, Ellen, Peter, Mary Alice, Connie and myself, went to a place I had never been before, the fourth floor of Holton Hall, on the campus of what was formerly a famous School for the Deaf in Brattleboro - the Austine School - but after the Austine School closed, was taken over by the Winston-Prouty Center, a school for special education. Hospice was using a very attractive conference room in Holton Hall for their training sessions. It was a group of maybe 14 people, some of whom were known to me, but mostly were strsangers. They were all women; I guess Hospice volunteers are mostly women. Connie was our leader, and after we sang an opening song - I'll Fly Away, she led off by saying a bit about how Hallowell got started twenty years ago, and how we operate in general terms. Then each of us introduced ourselves and shared a particular Hallowell experience. I described a sing 14-15 years ago which has remained vivid to me, which took place in a very humble little trailor, where an older woman was lying. on a couch, unresponsive, covered only by a sleeping bag thrown over her; her daughter was there, a friend, two big dogs and 3-4 young men, pretty rough-looking, drinking beer, probably grandsons. It was sort of noisy when we went in, the dogs were very active, but when we began to sing, things quieted down, the dogs became still, the guys quit talking, and after a bit a very special hush came over that trailor, something that felt very special, actually sacred. Later, when we came out into a dark, cold, clear night, I said to Ellen, "I feel as though I have just been in the stable with the animals and the shepherds." We felt so privileged having been invited into that space, a place we otherwise would probably never have been able to go. A lot of Hallowell sings feel that way! Then after we sang another song - How Could Anyone Ever Tell You - we did a role-playing of an actual sing. One of the women volunteered to be the client - the person who is dying - and she lay down on a chaise lounge, and was covered with blankets. Another person played the role of the Hospice volunteer, sitting at her bedside, and then our group started humming Plovi Barko, as we often do, and came into the room and knelt around her bedside and sang quietly, and then just as quietly went out, still humming. We've done this on other occasions like this one, and it always moves people, often to tears. So we felt we were able to give them a good sense of who we are and what we do. And again, we are so privileged!

The conference room in Holton Hall where we met tonight

The view of Brattleboro from the 4th Floor of Holton Hall (through the screen!)

Holton Hall as it was when it was the main building of the Austine School