Senior sings a different tune when the visitors arrive
Friends of Meals on Wheels program delivers social benefits
It did not take long for Bob Chapman’s alter ego to surface inside his 1936 wood-framed bungalow in San Jose’s Luna Park neighborhood.
The transformation took place the moment Alyssa Bastovan appeared for her weekly visit as part of Friends of Meals on Wheels.
Chapman, aka Bobby Dean, grabbed one of his microphones and slowly got out of his favorite recliner to start a karaoke machine. Wearing blue-and-white flannel pajamas, he began singing Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable.”
Chapman, 87 and blind, might no longer have the looks of a suave Las Vegas entertainer. But his personality has outgrown physical limitations as a first-rate crooner of pop classics.
“He has just blossomed since ‘Friends’ like Alyssa have come into his life,” said Michele Lew, chief executive officer of The Health Trust.
Friends of Meals on Wheels is an extension of the popular Meals on Wheels program that began in the 1950s to deliver food to homebound seniors. Visits from staff and volunteers have breathed life into
the homes of some of Santa Clara County’s most vulnerable residents who often suffer loneliness and depression from a lack of social contact.
The situation has been exacerbated this year by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has led to shelter-in-place orders. About 80% of the COVID-19-related deaths are peo
ple 65 years and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As a result, seniors have become more isolated than ever to avoid contracting the deadly disease. But isolation has its own set of serious issues. Medical experts say it can lead to heart disease, anxiety, depression and cognitive decline.
“When you’re just sitting around with nothing to do, you get to the point that nobody cares,” Chapman said. “Why should I even be living?”
At a time of urgent need, Friends of Meals on Wheels faces a financial crisis that could spell its demise as Santa Clara County struggles with budget issues because of the pandemic. Silicon Valley nonprofit The Health Trust, which runs the program partly through county funding, hopes for a lifeline to continue to ensure the South Bay’s elders are not forgotten.
The Health Trust is in discussions for county funding to sustain Friends from Meals on Wheels through mid-March, but has not formalized any agreements yet.
Its goal is to provide weekly calls or visits to 100 homebound, low-income, elderly adults. According to the California Department on Aging, 57,000 Santa Clara County seniors live alone, many of whom suffer fair to poor health.
“Just to keep him out of the emergency room and out of the hospital easily makes this cost- effective,” Lew said.
Chapman, who never married, did not have a safety net before joining Friends of Meals on Wheels. He said he has a sister in Kingman, Arizona, and nieces and nephews scattered about. Chapman has a longtime San Jose friend he met through karaoke who calls regularly.
But Chapman said he no longer knows his neighbors — “I fell down on the porch,” he recalled. “I yelled out, ‘Help, help.’ Nobody came.”
Since Bastovan and Friends of Meals on Wheels came into his life in the past year, Chapman has a community of people watching out for his needs. Bastovan, 25, and others involved with the program not only spend time chatting with their clients like neighbors on a visit, but they also address issues in the home.
In Chapman’s case that often means reading his mail and helping him with bills. Chapman said he contracted glaucoma about 10 years ago and lost his sight. He moves around the twobedroom home by feel and memory.
The Friends’ visitors helped Chapman get an inhome caregiver. And when
Pacific, Gas and Electric inspectors shut down his old furnace last year, Bastovan got Habitat for Humanity to install a new one at virtually no cost.
“I thought I was going to be freezing, shaking all winter,” Chapman said, adding he lives on $1,500 a month from Social Security.
Bastovan, who grew up in Livermore, said she got the idea to work with older adults after her grandmother died five years ago. Bastovan earned a bachelor’s degree in health sciences at Cal State East Bay and a master’s degree in public health at UC Davis.
“It is really fulfilling for both of us,” said Bastovan, who visited one day wearing a Mickey Mouse face mask.
On the surface, Chapman lived an ordinary life as a mechanic at a Union 76 station in San Jose and then as a security officer at Advanced Micro Devices before retiring.
Chapman said he lived in an apartment with his father for 36 years and then moved into his current home in 2004 when his mother and stepfather became ill.
But with a ready audience, Bobby Dean has stories to tell.
His family moved from Indiana to San Jose in 1952 after he had graduated from high school. Soon Chapman landed in Hollywood working as a photo printer for local television station KTLA, printing thousands of 8-by10-inch glossy black- andwhite photos of movie stars each day.
Chapman also learned photography. An image he took from the 1953 Rose Parade of character actor Andy Devine is part of the collection at the Mohave Museum of History and Arts in Kingman, Arizona.
Chapman recalled taking photos of Bob Clampett, a famous American animator and puppeteer best known for Looney Tunes, the day he met television impresario Lawrence Welk and the memorable night he encountered “the guy who wrote ‘ Stardust’ ” — Tin Pan Alley songwriter Hoagy Carmichael.
After returning to San Jose in the mid-1950s, Chapman found an outlet for his artistic side by regularly performing karaoke with friends at local restaurants and hotel bars.
He now makes CDs to hand out as gifts to friends and visitors. They are filled with renditions of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” “The Way We Were,” “I Will Always Love You,” and the songs of Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis and Louis Armstrong.
How does a blind man perform karaoke where the words appear on a screen as the music plays? Chapman said he has memorized the words to almost 300 songs. All he has to do is ask the voice assistant Alexa to play whatever he wants.
“I don’t like rap or boomboom music,” he said. “Everyone who knows me requests the theme from ‘ Titanic.’ ”
Good choice. Chapman’s heart will go on with his rendition of Celine Dion’s ballad.
All he needs is a little help from his Friends.