For the past eight years, Michael Lawing has walked the halls of the Hospice of Rutherford County in North Carolina at least one day a week with his Martin acoustic guitar, playing and singing for patients and their families.
A kidney cancer survivor for nearly 20 years, Lawing enters a patient’s room,pulls up a chair or leans against a wall,and begins strumming. He sings only gospel hymns like In the Garden or How Great Thou Art, but that’s fine with his listeners. For many residents at the hospice center, located in western North Carolina, old hymns and spiritual songs offer a connection to earlier times.
Travis Smith, a chaplain at the Hospice of Rutherford County from 2006 to 2013, has witnessed the power of Lawing’s singing and guitar playing. “We would see patients who were almost withdrawn, and once the music started, they would come out of their shells and they would smile,” says Smith. “Time and time again, Mike would go into the room and through his talent and what he did, he would bring patients back to a happier place.”
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