Music man

cil, Kleiner is a member of the facility’s Pandemic Response Team, which meets regularly to discuss residents’ concerns.

Kleiner helped coordinate volunteers who made frequent calls to residents to identify problems and check on their physical and mental status.

“Social isolation can have a negative effect on everyone’s health and well-being, especially seniors,” he said. “Uncertain times like these can often bring grief, fear and negativity.”

Kleiner, who instructed medical residents at Reading Hospital, also had a hand in seeing to it that groceries were delivered to residents and helped teach computer skills to those unfamiliar with online platforms like Zoom.

All this left little time for Kleiner’s passion, watercolor painting at the Yocum Institute for Arts Education in West Lawn.

“I haven’t done a painting since March,” Kleiner said. “I haven’t had a lot of spare time.”

If music soothes the soul, Robert G. Masenheimer is a true peacemaker.

Music has been an integral part of 83-year-old Masenheimer’s life since he learned to play piano when he was 10.

An ordained minister and holder of a master’s degree in music, he heads the music ministry at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Robesonia and plays piano and organ at Phoebe Village in Wernersville, where he is a resident.

Since the coronavirus struck, Masenheimer’s musical mission has taken on an added dimension.

He has coordinated three virtual concerts and is working on a fourth streamed on Phoebe’s closed-circuit television system. They feature residents playing piano and organ.

“I don’t feel any more retired today than I did before retiring in 2004,” Masenheimer said. “I have something to do every day.”

Masenheimer and his wife, Suzanne, 80, take the virus seriously. They wear masks, social distance and have not been in a restaurant since March. They shop at Shady Maple Market, but go early in the morning to avoid crowds.

They vowed not to dwell on the virus, however, and focus on keeping active.

Masenheimer is bothered, though, by not being able to to celebrate his birthday last year and, he predicts, not again this year.

“In 2022, when I turn 85,” he vowed, “We’re going to have a blast.”