After 18 years of living with Alzheimer's disease, Marti Kaye spends most of her time in a wheelchair, expressionless. That changes the minute her son Adam Kaye starts playing his guitar.
Adam Kaye and his mother, Marti Kaye, spend every Sunday together. Adam normally plays some of her favorite songs on his guitar, with Marti whistling or humming along. But he recently had shoulder surgery and won't be able to strum a guitar for a while.
Well aware that Alzheimer's is an irreversible disease, a"one-way street," Adam didn't feel the need to bury himself in research. He had two young children to raise, and his father, Peter Kaye, had already decided he would be the one to care for his wife of 50 years.But almost a decade passed, and Peter was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2014. He soon became unable to tend to Marti's needs, and the family decided to bring on professional caregivers.
So every Sunday for the past eight years, Adam has packed his guitar and made the short drive to visit with his mother. Once there, he plays some of her favorite songs: tunes from the metaphorical pages of the Great American Songbook, like 20th-century rock standards and folk and jazz tracks. When he plays for her, he sees a glimpse of the woman he has known his entire life.to his band's Instagram account of him playing"Blue Bossa," by Kenny Dorham, for Marti.
But he was unaware of the link between music and memory when he first started making his weekly visits to play for Marti eight years ago. However, he noticed early on in his visits that when he played a song from her past, her eyes would light up, and she would smile and try to sing along with him. Adam says some visiting professionals were also unaware of that connection and were shocked when they listened to the Marti and Adam show.
"But after a while, they don't suffer anymore. They have no pain, and they just don't know what's going on. They don't recognize their family members, their loved ones, so they really don't suffer," Abraham says."They can live like this [for] 10 to 15 years. And the suffering, which is both emotional and then financial, is on the family."
, which was found to slow Alzheimer's progression by about 35%, has been submitted to the FDA for approval. A decision is expected by the end of 2023.And unfortunately for Marti, many of today's disease detection and treatment methods weren't available when her doctor told her she had Alzheimer's back in 2005. Adam says his mother participated in a clinical trial through the University of California San Diego a few years after she was diagnosed, but nothing ever came from it.
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