If you happen to board the southbound CTA No.147 bus on a Tuesday morning, you may encounter Sheila Fleming en route to the weekly rehearsal of the Good Memories Choir. Sheila is one of the volunteers who provides both vocal and emotional support for Good Memories choristers. (Sounds Good Choir founders Jonathan and Sandy Siegel Miller launched the Good Memories Choir in 2018 To serve people with early stage memory loss.)

Sheila had joined the Sounds Good Choir in 2017, shortly after retiring from her post as the director of behavioral health at the Erie Family Health Center. “I was going mad,” she recalled, “I wasn’t a knitter or a collector or a golfer. I heard about a choir for older people, so I went over to the Merion [first home of the Evanston Sounds Good Choir] and there they were! I fell in love with it.”

Sheila was among the first to sign on as a Good Memories volunteer. “The sense of being part of something bigger than myself it very satisfying,” she says. “During the volunteer training sessions, we watched videos of people who seemed so lethargic and unhappy. Then suddenly they are on their feet, singing with joy. I thought, ‘Wow, if I can be part of that!’”

Recalling the first Good Memories concert at Fourth Presbyterian Church’s Buchanan Chapel, Sheila said, “I looked out and saw our singers’ family members in the audience. They were so proud and happy.”

When the Good Memories Choir came back together after the COVID-enforced hiatus, Sheila was eager to resume the weekly bus trip downtown, where she is often joined by fellow volunteer Iris Rudnick. These two former social workers often regale other choristers with tales of their adventures on the No. 147, where they can’t seem to resist getting involved with their fellow passengers’ travails. Iris is one of the new friends Sheila made through Sounds Good, a common occurrence in a setting where people come together through music.

Sheila’s love of music was seeded in her growing-up years in Burlington, Iowa, the fourth of five children, and the only girl. “My parents used to sing this Irish ballad, ‘Sheila Mary Darling With Her Eyes so Blue,’ but it took four tries to get their Sheila Mary.”

Singing came into Sheila’s life when she was a high school student. “I hated school. I wasn’t a stellar student. I wasn’t active in sports, didn’t want to be a cheerleader. But on Friday we always got to sing. That was my favorite time. My high school had a girls’ sextet. I auditioned and got in. That was like heaven.”  She also tried her hand at conducting. When one of her brothers brought home a recording of the Berlioz Requiem, Sheila would put the record on the turntable, stand in front of the picture window in the living room and “conduct the Mississippi River” as it flowed below the bluffs of Burlington.

Remembering what music had meant to her as a student informed Sheila’s work as an educator, the first of her two careers. As a second-grade teacher in Catholic schools on Chicago’s West Side, “I tried to end every day with music, so they would leave the classroom with love in their hearts. I liked to send them home singing. That was a priority for my soul, and I hoped for their souls as well.”

As both a teacher and a principal, Sheila introduced innovative methods in the schools in which she served: “Not every kid is a visual learner, not every kid is an auditory learner. You have to meet them where they are, you have to learn what their day was like before they came to school.”

But after 25 years in the classroom, Sheila knew she needed to make a change. “I was becoming a crabby teacher, and I didn’t want to be that way.” She found a new calling as a social worker, earning her master’s in social work at age 50. “As a social worker you are getting a broader perspective on people’s lives, helping them find the services, the connections that they need. And you are validating people’s experiences. I think sometimes people are more likely to open up to us than to their doctors. We can get a broader picture. We can build rapport without dependency.”

Sheila treasures a nine-page handwritten essay by one of her clients who explained, “This is what it’s like to have OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder].”  One touching excerpt: “When all this energy becomes positive things are so beautiful. I can watch a bee going inside of a flower. Have you ever watched a leaf fall to the ground? Have you ever watched ants work? Have you ever been caught up in a world that is so beautiful it takes your breath away? This is the mind of a person who has OCD.” Sheila cites this as an example of how she learned from her clients: “There is so much resiliency, creativity and wisdom in that essay.”

Now retired from her second career, Sheila continues to devote time to her friends and her community. She and her partner of 25 years enjoy traveling in this country and abroad. One of their favorite destinations is Ireland, where they have enjoyed family reunions. And of course, singing remains a constant in her life. Quoting her favorite song, “How Can I Keep From Singing?” says this daughter of Iowa who continues to board the No. 147 bus every Tuesday to share her love of life and music with the Good Memories Choir.