Carroll County Times
by Mary Grace Keller
Soft notes ring from black and white keys, telling members of the Copper Ridge choir that practice is about to begin.
Nancy Cortner responds to the piano with a few la, la, las, and the seven women in a semicircle around her crack open their choir books. Cortner struggles for a moment to find her page, then Executive Director Rusty Mitchell steps in to assist.
A chorus of unique voices fills the room as the choir starts to sing the Christmas classic, “O Holy Night.”
These women are just a few of the visitors to and residents of Copper Ridge in Sykesville, one of 26 campuses of Acts Retirement-Life Communities along the East Coast. Every resident of Copper Ridge has at least one thing in common — memory impairment.