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Alex Cabrero ReportingMusic has a way of bringing out emotions. You can laugh, cry, or go back to a time when things seemed simpler. Music can also help you die.
If you listen closely you can hear it.
Tristan Adair, Harp Player: “I love the harp. It's something, it's hard to explain.”
Like a fine piece of art, the effects are different for every person. For Tristan Adair it's spiritual.
Tristan Adair: “It feeds my heart and it feeds my soul.”
So she keeps playing. Not for an orchestra or some big symphony. No, Tristan's audience needs her more.
Norman Cornick: “Yes, any kind of music like that is very helpful to anybody.”
You see, Norman Cornick is dying and Tristan is touching something even doctors can't reach.
Norman Cornick: “It's inspiring.”
Tristan Adair: “It's a holy time and a sacred time, and I feel privileged to be a part of that.”
Officially her craft is called music thanatology, the art of playing music for the dying.
Kay Terry: “Often times you'll see a lot of tears.”
Kay Terry is a nurse at CareSource hospice in Salt Lake City where Tristan plays. Sometimes medicine just doesn't work the way music can.
Kay Terry: “Heavenly. It's just heavenly. You can actually see people's respirations decrease.”
Tristan Adair: “Now I'm gonna count your respiration, okay? It'll just take a second.”
By taking a patient's pulse and respiration, Tristan tempos her music, and sometimes, puts them to sleep. Physiology and anatomy are all part of the three-year training it takes to become a thanatologist, which may explain why there are only about 60 of them in the country.
Tristan is on call 24 hours, you never know when a patient will be in pain. But it's those calls in the middle of the night when she knows she's needed most.
Tristan Adair: “We get very attached to our patients here, and so we do grieve when the patients die.”
Kay Terry: “Dying is a hard thing to do for a person. The body is trying hard to shut down. And so the music Tristan plays, the harp music she offers to the patient, helps them relax.”
Tristan understands why patients come here, and their families understand why she's here.
Nancy Hoskins, Daughter of Patient: “It gave us a connection to heaven. I mean, you're so close to heaven anyway.”
Nancy Hoskins' father passed away this past November. His strong will kept him on earth for as long as it could, but when it was time, the music took him higher.
Nancy Hoskins: “I watched his breathing slow down. I watched a calmness come over him. It brought a sense of peace to his spirit.” Tristan Adair: “Well, how do I deal with it? You cry. You cry. And sometimes I play the harp for myself. We know they'll die, but that's part of life.”
The thanatology school Tristan and others trained at in Montana is no longer operating.
If you'd like more information on Tristin Adair and her music, you can contact her at Care Source in Salt Lake. Their number is 801-266-7200.
