Blog

Powerful music video tells tale of family love and loss

‘Glue’, written and performed by The Occasional Orchestra, tells the story of Stan Grimmett, who died after a battle with vascular dementia, and the life he lived with his wife Ruth.

The song and accompanying video give us a glimpse into their love story and paint an emotional picture of how dementia can impact an entire family.

Money raised through downloads of the song will help to fund music therapy for people with dementia, provided by older people’s charity MHA.

Lead singer of midlands based band, The Occasional Orchestra, Darrell Mitchell, said:

“Shortly before Stan died, although he couldn’t say the words, he was still able to let Ruth know that she had been the love of his life. It occurred to me that Ruth had been the Glue, holding him on.

“Stan was my father-in-law. I wrote the song after reflecting on how Stan’s illness affected him and those around him, and how millions of others experience similar feelings of confusion and loss. Mostly though, it’s an old-fashioned love story between Stan and Ruth.”

Following his death, Stan’s family contacted charity, MHA, in the hope of raising money for music therapy – a clinical therapy offered across MHA dementia care homes in the UK.

Music therapy helps to alleviate some of the symptoms of dementia. It gives people living with the condition a chance to unlock special memories and express emotions and feelings that other forms of communication cannot, even if the individual is no longer able to speak or respond to other people’s words.

Lincoln Clarke, Director of Fundraising at MHA, said: “Only a couple of weeks ago we heard senior government officials state that more needs to be done to make music therapy more widely available than it currently is. While there is work to do across the board when it comes to addressing music therapy provision in the UK in future, this song is a step in the right direction for lots of people with dementia right now.

“MHA has been providing clinical music therapy for 10 years, but this is only made possible through fundraising initiatives. With the help of everyone out there who shares and listens to Glue, we hope to raise £10,000 – which will be exclusively used for music therapy provision.”

Money will be raised through downloads of ‘Glue’ by The Occasional Orchestra on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and Amazon. Those who would like to know more about music therapy, or would like to make a separate donation, can visit BestForAges.com