Joy’s story

After the loss of her beloved husband, singing in the Mountbatten Hospice Community Choir has given Joy a sense of peace and helped her feel like a person again.

Joy is a member of the Mountbatten Hospice Community Choir, which is run by Fraser, a Nordoff and Robbins music therapist. It is made up of around 70 people, who meet weekly in the hospice’s day centre.

Joy has been singing with the choir for several months, following the loss of her husband, Andrew.

“I lost Andrew on Easter Sunday,” she says. “We’d been married 43 years, we were best friends and I couldn’t imagine not having him with me. When he passed away at Mountbatten Hospice it was devastating.”

“Joining the hospice choir has been my life saver. I look forward to it every week. When I’m singing, I get a special feeling – it’s as though Andrew is standing right beside me. It’s the only time that this happens.”

Living without her husband remains consistently challenging, but the choir offers respite.

When I’m concentrating on singing, I forget everything else, and it takes me to a different place. The songs we sing are uplifting and I go away contented and peaceful. Often, I am awake at night, but after Choir I sleep well. It’s like a kind of anaesthetic.

Joy

For Joy, the benefits go far beyond the momentary joy of collective singing.

“The choir is like a kind of counselling,” she says. “When I am singing, my heart wells up and all the deep anxieties, the stresses and strains I’ve been carrying around all week all come out and are lifted away. At choir I feel like I come out of my bubble – I feel like a person again. It does me the world of good and Andrew would want me to be enjoying myself. It’s a blessing!”