London Realtor, singer delivers trip down memory lane for local seniors' home residents

By trade, Londoner Paul Byers helps people buy and sell homes in the city's tight housing market.

But for much of the week, you can find him, microphone in hand, entertaining residents and staff at local seniors' homes, belting out well-known songs of yesteryear.

It's something the long-time Realtor has been doing for more than 20 years, he says, driven by a love of singing, karaoke and giving back to the local aging community.

"I've been singing as long as I can remember. My mum really was a good singer. I actually got into doing karaoke when it first came out in Canada" in the 1980s, he said.

After performing at local bars and venues for years, Byers sang for the first time at the city-owned Dearness Home on the suggestion of a friend who worked there. Today, he says he performs at seniors' homes four to five times a week, often at Dearness.

"I love to watch people when I'm singing songs that have some meaning to them, for whatever reason… I just love seeing the emotion that it brings out in them."

For Byers, who hails from Scotland, that's taken on a more personal note over the past two years, watching as his mother succumbs to the effects of Alzheimer's disease.

"She's at the stage where your cognition is very, very low, and she's non-responsive," he said. "But I know when I sing songs, we either used to sing together or songs she was very familiar with growing up, there's something there. She'll give me a smile."

This past Wednesday, Byers crooned to residents at Chartwell Riverside Retirement Community as staff members handed out glasses of wine, ginger ale and snacks for Wednesday Happy Hour. He says he performs at the home once or twice a month.

"I find music is therapeutic for anyone that certainly has Alzheimer's or dementia," said Sylvia Turner, a resident of Chartwell Riverside who helps organize entertainment for the other residents, including a Saturday movie night.

"Music seems to bring people around, as Paul has said about his mom, right? My husband did. He loved to hear the music."

'It's very therapeutic'

For Ruth Thornton, who has lived at Chartwell Riverside for two years and who in the mid-1940s worked for CBC, the entertainment help to liven things up.

"You're pretty well confined to barracks, as they'd say," she said. "I think they do an excellent job. They're all very professional, and it's certainly something different than listening to a radio or a television."

Several dozen residents listened as Byers performed covers of Hank Cochran, the Everly Brothers, the Drifters and Tom Jones, a notable favourite.

"The Green, Green Grass of Home is a big one," Byers said. "There's a yodelling song that I like to do from a gentleman called Frank Ifield, and that goes over really, really well. A lot of Elvis… I do get a lot of requests for John Denver, Country Roads, and that's one of my favourites to sing as well."

Byers is a fan favourite among the residents, said Melissa Morrison, the lifestyle programs manager at Chartwell Riverside.

"It's very therapeutic. It brings them back to their childhood, back to their own marriages," she said. The programming is also rewarding for staff.

"We spend more time here than we do at home. Just being able to gather in a safe common space and enjoy some music and some emotions is the best part of my job."

Byers hopes to take his talent to the next level and apply to compete on Canada's Got Talent.