DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is accustomed to touching hearts by the thousands, but it was an audience of dozens that touched their hearts Monday morning, June 20.

While in Des Moines for a concert Monday evening, 95 members of the choir formed into two groups and performed at local residential care centers as a service project. This was one of the few blocks of time during the choir's 13-day tour that the singers could have had some time off. They opted to sing for care center residents.

Wickie Dawe, social coordinator at Wesley Acres, said that in the 15 years she has worked there this was the first time she had seen residents arrive an hour early for a program.



The choir's visit was much anticipated, the Rev. C. Rendy Garrett, chaplain at the senior health center, told the Church News. He said that he is a retired Methodist minister who has loved listening to choir recordings for many years. "This is the kind of music people need to hear," he said. "It brightens everybody's day."

The short program at Wesley Acres included five songs: "God Bless America," "Climb Every Mountain," "You'll Never Walk Alone," "Come, Come, Ye Saints" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Joan Schooff, wife to Elder Maury W. Schoof, an Area Seventy, said that she noticed a man and woman sitting together. "The man mouthed every word of every song," Schooff said. After the choir members sang, she went over to speak to them. The woman said she had hesitated in bringing her husband, who has Alzheimer's. She was afraid he would create a disturbance in the crowd.

The woman told Schooff that he had been a choir leader for many years. To the woman's amazement, he remembered the words of all the songs. "While the choir members were singing, his eyes were clear and he seemed totally engaged in the moment.," Schooff said. "The woman told me, 'I have my husband back today because of this music.' "

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This story is provided by The LDS Church News, an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is produced weekly by The Deseret News.