MIDDLEBORO — Elaine Lebar may not know where she is or what she’s going to do in the next five minutes. But she can play the third movement of Mozart’s “Moonlight Sonata” on the piano, without hearing a note or reading a sheet of music.
Elaine Lebar, a 97-year-old Brooklyn native, has advanced dementia and currently lives in the memory care unit at Keystone Place, a senior living facility in Buzzards Bay. The disease has stripped her of her short-term memory and even her hearing, but it has not taken away her musical genius.
The piano has been a fixture in Elaine’s life since she started playing at 3 years old, said her daughter, Randi Lebar. She received her master’s in music education from the University of Missouri and is an accomplished piano teacher, performer, accompanist and composer. And now, she’s a TikTok star with more than 252,000 followers.
During a presentation at the Middleboro Public Library on Wednesday, June 4, Randi Lebar shared the story of how, at 92 years old, her mother became a TikTok sensation — by accident.
At the height of the pandemic, Randi began posting videos of her mother on TikTok every time she couldn’t visit her at the senior living facility due to a positive Covid-19 test. She wanted to “give a face [to] those with dementia,” who were suffering in isolation, she said. Many of the videos were from years earlier, which she had started recording for her own recollection.
She posted one such video of her mother playing the third movement of Mozart’s “Moonlight Sonata,” per a request from one of Randi’s TikTok followers. In the video, Elaine claims she doesn’t know the piece, then proceeds to play it flawlessly — all from memory.
On Nov. 9, 2020, that video garnered 4.5 million views in 12 hours. Today, it has more than 9.5 million views.
“None of this would have ever happened if not for Covid or my mother’s dementia,” said Randi, who likens the moment her mother went viral to a nuclear bomb going off.
Elaine has since been featured on ABC Nightly News, WCVB Boston, WJAR Providence and several other news channels.
To this day, Randi said she doesn’t entirely understand why her mother captured the hearts of so many social media fans.
“I wish I knew. I think it’s partly because her stubborn nature and single-mindedness come through in a lot of her videos. It’s not just her playing talent, her personality comes across in the videos. She’s very sarcastic,” she said.
The videos on Randi’s TikTok, @orifbone, showcase the contrast between the sharpness of Elaine’s memory when she sits in front of the piano and the sense of confusion that descends upon her everywhere else.
“Without the piano, my mother is just another little, lost old lady. If you can sit her in front of the piano, it takes her back to when life made sense,” noted Randi.
She also suspects that the videos came across people’s feeds at a time when they needed to see something uplifting—during Covid and right after the tumultuous 2020 election.
“People needed something to feel hopeful about,” she said.
During her talk, Randi shared the lessons she’s learned through the progression of her mother’s condition. Among messages such as don’t argue with someone who has dementia and the importance of positive interactions, she emphasizes one in particular.
“Find their piano — whatever that thing is that connects them to who they were. There’s no question the piano brings my mother back and allows her to be herself for that interaction.”
She describes how her mother’s entire demeanor changes after her fingers touch the keys. “She’s happier. She stands taller, she walks with more balance, she looks like a more confident person. She doesn’t look as lost. It changes everything,” explained Randi.
Even the nurses in the memory care unit where Elaine lives can see the difference. “She’s in a much better mood” after playing, said Certified Nursing Assistant Karen Westgate.
Though Randi admits she receives a small amount of money for the TikTok videos, she doesn’t do it for the dollars or the fame. “Sometimes I have to cajole her or come up with a reason [for her to play]. But it has nothing to do with wanting to make a trick pony out of her… it’s because it makes her life better,” she stated.
“If I could get her to the piano, I could get her to smile,” she’s learned. “I can’t take away her dementia, but if I can get her to smile, I’ve had a good day.”
