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Direct Care and a Unique Gift for Music

“Ricky D” uses a wheelchair, but that’s not the most important thing about him, according to Maria Madison who is a direct care staff at the ACR Home where Rick lives. The most important thing about Rick is his unique gift for music. His musical interests range from classical to oldies, to country music. He can name the artist and the song title of almost any recording within 3 seconds of the song starting. He has almost perfect pitch and plays songs by ear, and if he hears a song he wants to play on the piano, he can transpose the key of the song so he can play the song with all, or almost all, white keys. He has a large stereo system with speakers in his room, as well as a small CD/radio player, and he listens to music every day starting as soon as he gets home from work. He even sleeps with music on, usually classical or oldies.

Direct Care and a Unique Gift for Music

Rick says he comes from a musical family and that he took piano lessons as a young boy. He has kept up with playing the piano and is currently learning to play the guitar.  In the summertime he enjoys attending free concerts in nearby city parks and talking to the singers and musicians after the concerts. He also participates on the worship team at his church and has even participated in recording sessions. Rick’s current favorite composers are Tchaikovsky and Mozart. His favorite singer right now is Laura Marling. He enjoys listening to the band CCR as well as Janice Joplin, and has a love for the song “Bo Diddley-Bo Diddley”. He especially loves the tremolo effect and enjoys any song that has tremolo in it.

Rick and direct care staff MariaDJ at ACR Dances

Ricky D loves assisting at the DJ table for ACR’s dances which are held 3 or 4 times a year. He rode to a recent dance in Maria’s convertible, which he loved! It was a cool night, so he bundled up in a jacket, bomber hat, and a blanket and they rode with the top down and the music blasting!

A New Guitar for Rick

He also plays several instruments including a key board that he has in his room and, more recently, a new guitar with an amp and tremolo pedal. Maria loves to tell the story about how Rick got his new guitar during one of her direct care shifts:

Working for ACR has provided me such amazing opportunities and shown me what kindness looks like. A few weeks ago I took Ricky D to the Roseville Guitar Center Store to visit his friend Joe and play guitar. While Rick was playing, a stranger came up to us to show us a few new notes and to chat with Rick. They talked about cars, musicians, life and, of course, guitars. After a while, he left us and came back over with the manager of the Guitar Center because he wanted to tell us that he had a surprise for Rick. He knelt down so that he was eye to eye with Rick, and told him that he had just bought him his very own, brand new guitar AND amplifier AND tremolo! I was completely shocked and so grateful to him for doing this for Rick.

Ricky D is absolutely over the moon about his new equipment. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so happy! I am blown away by the kindness shown to the residents in our care. It is one of the most inspiring and heartwarming things I have ever seen.