When someone you love has dementia, it can feel like they’re slowly drifting away. Nick Harvey, a composer from East Sussex, England, has been watching his father Paul’s condition advance for years, but every so often, he catches a glimpse of the musical genius inside him.
Growing up, Paul always had an uncanny ability to improvise beautiful songs with little to no guidance. Recently, Nick gave him just a few notes and asked him to make a melody on the piano. The resulting video is nothing short of extraordinary!
“Dad’s ability to improvise and compose beautiful melodies on the fly has always amazed me,” Nick wrote on Twitter. “Tonight, I gave him four random notes as a starting point. Although his dementia is getting worse, moments like this bring him back to me.”
The post quickly went viral, and while the attention doesn’t mean much to Paul, Nick said it’s nice to have others appreciate his father’s talent as much as he does. It’s especially powerful when you realize that, in Nick’s words: “A couple of days ago he was struggling to play.”
We’re so glad the two of them got to share this wonderful moment! Watch Paul’s lovely composition in the video below, and don’t forget to share this story.
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