92-Year-Old Woman With Dementia Plays ‘Moonlight Sonata’ On Piano From Memory

The story of a 92-year-old dementia patient performing on the piano from memory is giving hope to people all over the country.

Elaine Lebar, 92, lives at Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. Her daughter, Randi Lebar shared on Facebook, “My mother is almost 93, who knows how much longer she will be around. I left for college when I was 16 and did not spend much time with her as an adult until 2 1/2 years ago when I moved her to live near me.”

“In many ways, her dementia brought us closer and I have valued our time together. Then the pandemic came, and we struggled through Skype and window visits that made no sense to her.” It wasn’t easy for Randi to be away from her mother, and so she shared about her in a video, “with the goal of raising awareness about Alzheimer’s dementia and the effect of the pandemic restrictions on this population and their families.”

Randi’s TikTok videos have shown the world her mother’s beauty through the magic of music. “An alternative to the election news: check out my mom on TikTok,” she posted on Nov. 3. The video shows Elaine’s musical genius and her wit and good humor. She plays many renowned classical pieces and also some she composed and published herself.

One viral video shows her playing the third movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” which starts with Randi describing it and then Elaine proclaims “I don’t know it” before she starts playing the familiar tune. “I did not anticipate that it would go viral but here we are,” Randi said. “My mom, a professional musician, has significant dementia, but life makes sense to her at the piano.”

Elaine has a huge fan following with more than 141,000 on TikTok alone and it’s all due to Randi and her talent which is giving hope to people all over the world.

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