It provided the daughter an opportunity to communicate with her father and helped Foster let him go. She says while her father couldn’t speak, he tried to sing, and she predicts the music had the same impact on him during his final moments.

Following her experience with her father’s death earlier in the decade, Foster, a music educator and performer, discovered a new mission in life – sharing music that helps people through profound challenges in their lives, particularly the end-of-life process.

“It was really quite a powerful experience,” says Foster about her interaction with her father through music.

“With my dad it was the hymns that helped release him.” Although her father was heavily sedated, “we could see how it calmed him,” says Foster.

“It provided release for all of us. As a caregiver, that’s sometimes the hardest part.”

Foster, a Port Perry resident, developed Room 217, Music for Life’s Journey. Room 217 is a series of musical CDs intended to serve as a resource for caregivers and a comfort for those with life-challenging illnesses. “My vision is to have a library of Room 217 CDs with tremendous breadth and musical variety contained in their own display unit for easy access at nursing stations, in spiritual centres, with recreational therapists, and in hospice and grief centres around the globe and to make them broadly available in retail and over the website for purchase by families and friends for those who are being cared for at home,” says Foster on her website, www.room217.ca

Foster says she selects music “that’s beautiful in a gentle way and hopeful where the songs reach the more emotional, spiritual and relational issues people might face” and connects people “spirit to spirit. That’s the philosophy base for choosing the music.”

“Timeless melodies can reassure troubled hearts and reach into the depths of souls,” her website states. “Music can support the ailing, the grieving, and the caregiver.”

Her CDs are acoustic, with very few instruments and the songs are woven gently together allowing time for reflection. “It’s slow and deliberately planned to reflect their breathing,” Foster says.

She surveyed 100 seniors for feedback on what spiritual and non-spiritual music they’d like to listen to if they only had one month to live. She also held focus groups. Ninety to ninety-five per cent of the songs are familiar to seniors and Foster says 76 per cent of the dying population is over age 70.

Her music is making its way into long-term care homes.

“Room 217 is being used in locked units in long-term care facilities. I’ve been told it helps decrease agitation.” She says recreational therapists are also using Room 217 for a variety of applications. “I’m thrilled if it can support Alzheimer patients and their families,” she says.

“I come at this project as a musician catalyzed by my care-giving experience. The love for this project is end-of-life care.”

Foster is currently in pre-production for her next compilation of CDs.

She conducts presentations about the power of music during end-of-life care.

Call 905-852-1969 or e-mail jhunter@room217.ca for more information about the music or to book Foster.