Country Singer Serenades His Mother with Alzheimer's on Stage in Tearjerking Video
A rising country star’s performance at the Dubuque County Fair is going viral after the emotional story behind his original song has touched millions of viewers’ hearts.
Jay Allen pulled his 53-year-old mother, Sherry Rich, onto the stage with him as he began singing one of his newest singles. The lyrics to his song were inspired by her story which made this moment even sweeter.
Rich is in the late stages of her battle with early onset Alzheimer’s. Allen said that the family began noticing signs when she was only in her 40s, but her condition has quickly deteriorated.
“It feels like we’ve lost her; she’ll walk into a room and she’s just blank, like she isn’t even there. It’s crushing,” he said. “It’s almost like she’s a shell of our mom. It’s really hard, and it can be really frustrating. You feel helpless and angry, like there’s no solution and nothing you can do.
Allen shared just how powerful music has been in his mother’s journey through early onset Alzheimer’s in an interview with Sirius XM’s “The Highway.” He first realized that country music seemed to help his mom “wake up” while they were attending a concert in Nashville.
He noticed her foot tapping to the beat of the music so he asked her if she would like to dance with him. She agreed, and as they were dancing something changed.
He said, “She like woke up or something because she took a deep breath, she pulled me in really close, and she squeezed me tight and she whispered in my ear, ‘Jay, I really missed you.'”
According to Allen, Rich would listen to country music as she fell asleep at night. “Now,” he wrote on Instagram. “It’s the only thing that brings her back.”
“I live for those moments. I hope and pray to see her again for another moment between the blank stares,” he told his hometown paper.
After dancing with his mom in Nashville, Allen had what he called a “God moment” when the thought “you have to write something about ‘blank stares'” popped into his mind.
That’s when the country artist turned his pain into a song by writing one of his newest singles appropriately titled “Blank Stares.”
For Allen, it’s a tangible way he can do something to help his mom and others who live with the same disease. Through the song, he has been able to bring awareness to the struggles that family members navigate through while taking care of their loved one with Alzheimer’s.
Lori Richard-Dittmer, a woman who attended the Iowa fair, captured the tear jerking moment he pulled his mother on stage. It has since been viewed over 1.2 million times on Facebook.
The video shows Rich holding on and hugging her son while he sings the lyrics to his song.
“I know you’re still in there, deep down somewhere,” Allen sang. “I swear I still see you, between the blank stares.”
The heartbreaking song has made it’s way onto Sirius XM Radio and other radio stations across the country, but Allen knows that the song’s success is due in large part to God.
“I wrote “Blank Stares” with a pure heart, for my momma. Now it’s on the radio. God is mysterious & kind,” he wrote.
In a New Year’s post, he shared how difficult it’s been to accept his mom’s diagnosis and how he’s had to trust God in it all.
“I chose to release my mom’s sickness entirely to God and to love her and fight for her while I still have her, even though it breaks me,” he shared. “I chose to smile, and laugh, and live in the moment, even though there’s sadness in my past, and I’m anxious for the future.”
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