Musician with dementia stuns family by playing guitar again
A guitarist who once supported Bob Dylan but stopped playing because of Alzheimer’s has stunned his family by picking up the instrument again after two years.
Ray Buckley from Liverpool in the UK was devastated when his daughter, Emma, told him that his beloved guitar had been stolen. Passed on to her as an inheritance gift, Emma, also a musician, took to social media to ask for the public’s help in tracking down the guitar after it was stolen from a parked car.
While the original guitar wasn’t found, a generous musician touched by Emma’s story offered to donate his own guitar to Emma’s father.
On a Facebook post, Emma wrote: “So I was absolutely overwhelmed with the incredible response from my post about my stolen guitar, and am still receiving notifications of people sending their love and best wishes.
“My dad has early on-set Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia and the guitar belonged to him, and was the guitar he taught me to play on and therefore held a lot of sentimental memories.”
The replacement, similar to the stolen guitar and made by the same company, delighted Ray so much that he began to play again.
“He’s been so unbelievably upset and confused about the theft. I showed him the guitar. For the last two years every time I have handed him a guitar he has refused to play, embarrassed that he can’t remember, but his face lit up so much when he saw this new guitar,” Emma said.
Emma then shared a video of her dad playing his new guitar.
“This video is what happened next - something in that guitar sparked a memory, and we shared a moment together last night where we just about played our favourite song for the first time in five years. I’m on cloud nine.”
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