← Back to 2010

Healing harmonies

by Josh Mauser
Lorinda Jones teaches an hour-long dulcimer lesson to several students in her Elizabethtown studio.

Music is an integral part of Lorinda Jones’ life. The music teacher uses her skill and empathy to help heal the souls of patients.

“My low couldn’t have been any lower until you walked in. This is such a treat for me,” Ed McGuire said. “I have never had a private concert before.” As Lorinda played her harp for Ed at Norton Audubon Hospital in Louisville, tears welled in his eyes.

After learning the piano when she was younger, Lorinda wanted to know more. She has since mastered several instruments including the Appalachian dulcimer and the harp. “Music is what has always made me feel good about myself,” Lorinda said.

She dedicates every Wednesday to travel. Lorinda drives from her home in Elizabethtown to Louisville to participate in Norton Audubon Hospital’s music therapy program. Helping people is what she loves to do, and Lorinda has been a music therapist for almost 15 years. The gratitude from patients is written all over their faces. Patients react immediately after she sings, plays music and interacts with them. Music therapy is a break in the redundancies of the daily routine in the hospital.

“It makes me feel like I can make a difference in someone else’s life,” Lorinda said.

Jerry and Lorinda Jones make dinner together. The Jones' are both accomplished artists who met while teaching more than 20 years ago. They said they’ve been in love since the day they met. Now, they live a quiet and happy life out in the country by themselves.
Lorinda Jones enters a patient’s room at Norton Audubon Hospital in Louisville. Lorinda brings instruments from room to room offering her services as a music therapist. Jones has been doing this for nearly 15 years and still looks forward to helping make someone’s difficult time better.
Ed McGuire said his low couldn’t get any lower after he found out that he may need back surgery and an extended hospital stay,. "Then you walked in," Ed said about Lorinda Jones. "This is such a treat." Lorinda, an Elizabethtown resident, travels to Louisville every Tuesday to provide music therapy sessions for ill patients at Norton Audubon Hospital.
"Can I touch your fingertips?" Ed McGuire asked Lorinda Jones. Ed had always wanted to feel the calouses of a musician's hands. Lorinda was visiting Ed as a part of the music therapy program at Norton Audubon Hospital in Louisville. Lorinda, an Elizabethtown resident, makes the trip to Louisville every Wednesday.
"I have been bored to death, praying and praying, and now the Lord sent me you," said Roberta Hatfield, of Sheperdsville, to Lorinda Jones. Lorinda provides music therapy to patients at Norton Audubon Hospital, Louisville, every Wednesday. Roberta said having company, and someone to sing with, made her feel better than she had in a long time.
Lorinda Jones is an accomplished musician with a love for multiple instruments. She can play the harp, piano, oboe, dulcimer, banjo, whistle, auto harp and small percussion instruments. Here Lorinda plays one of her full size harps, which she uses to help patients with music therapy.