Trust is something I carry with me into every hospital hallway I play in. For most of my career as a pharmacist, I was trusted to get medication right for thousands of patients. Now I carry that same sense of responsibility into a very different kind of work.
Last week, in the span of a single day, I saw two different proofs that this music reaches people, recorded and live alike. That same day, an ICU nurse and an oncology nurse each told me, unprompted, that a hospital's recorded patient channel was genuinely helping their patients. Later that day, I was playing on a busy floor where I knew I could not get to every room. I remember thinking the music felt faint, almost like a single stick of incense burning in one spot. It cannot fill a whole building, but it can still drift, quietly, down a hallway, and reach further than you would expect.
A woman moving slowly with her cane came toward me. She told me her husband was in his room at the very end of the hall, and the sound had traveled that whole distance to reach them, faint but unmistakable. She followed the sound into the hallway and found me there, playing. She smiled and said, "Thank you for what you do. Thank you for being here."
Moments like that are why I keep showing up. They remind me that whether music is recorded for a screen or played live in a hallway, it can reach further than I can see, and make a real, healthy difference for the people who need it.
David Villareal, RPh, CCM
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