I learned the power of music, movement and human connection.

Many of the hospice clients I've worked with have Alzheimer's. Oftentimes they're losing their ability to speak, but not the desire to communicate.

An important technique I use with them I call “Musical Movement.” This means I play beautiful music and dance with them. But it’s not a conventional dance. I hold their hand, and we move together. The movements can be so subtle, an observer might not see anything. The client definitely experiences something though. They experience the connection with another human being that they so deeply desire. I’ve seen clients speak who'd been silent, regain use of a hand that had been twisted into a fist, and attempt to rise from their wheelchair and dance with me.

I learned to bring my mom back.

My 85-year-old mother fell in her kitchen and cracked her head on the tile floor. When my sister and I rushed to Sarasota hours later, her doctors had given up on her, and my dad was grieving. She had an inoperable brain bleed and was deemed non-responsive. Yet I put on Itzhak Perlman, gently held her hand and applied the skills I had learned. That night she responded in a small way by weakly squeezing my hand.

The next day she was trying to speak and reach out to us. As I continued to work with her, she was able to say our names, kiss us and show her love. My father, sister and I did the same. Twelve days later when my mother, Rolla Gene Eisman, passed away peacefully, she'd accomplished something she'd been trying to do for years: She brought us together as a family and left us filled with love, gratitude, and peace.