If you’re reading this magazine, then you probably love to sing. Whether it’s a hobby or a career, it is a lifelong passion that takes an important place in your life. Imagine if you lost the ability to sing—or even to speak. An early childhood accident almost resulted in just that for young soprano Leslie Ann Godwin, causing her to live a life without music. Her miraculous recovery allowed her to devote her life to the study and performance of music, and her cheerfully resilient spirit is inspirational to anyone who feels the healing power of music in their own life in any situation.
Godwin participated in singing in church from an early age; she grew up in a family that made music and she loved listening to people sing. Growing up in the community of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., she developed a strong faith, much of which was shaped by the music that expressed her beliefs.
At the age of seven, her life changed forever. While camping with friends, she was riding a bike down a steep hill. Though she was wearing a helmet, the impact as she hit a tree caused brain damage to the right side of her brain in what doctors later would describe as a severe close head injury. She does not remember any of the day of the accident—not even any fragmentary memories. What was evident to her family and to the doctors as she was rushed to the hospital, however, was that the head injury was serious—she shifted in and out of consciousness, struggled to get words out, and demonstrated a personality shift. After testing, she spent 10 days in intensive care.
After two weeks in the hospital, the doctors sent her home—there was nothing more they could do. Before doing so, they met with her parents about special services and other full-time care that she would need and told them she would never be a normal child again. “They told my parents there was little to no hope for me ever coming out of the state that I was in,” Godwin remembers.
Her injury left her with mental incapacities that supposedly would be permanent—for example, she would walk into a room and not remember how to turn the lights on, someone would have to help her physically with many tasks, and she could not grasp objects handed to her without help.
Shortly after her sobering diagnosis, she was lying on the floor of her home watching television with her grandmother, who was trying to make her laugh. All of sudden, Godwin stood up, walked over to her mother and started talking, all things she had not been able to do since the accident. She seemed to have completely and suddenly recovered.
When the doctors examined her later and learned of this sudden change, they had no other way to explain her sudden recovery than to call it a miracle. Godwin and her family agree, attributing it to the power of their faith. Her family and their church prayed for her throughout the entirety of her hospital stay and return home, and they felt that her recovery was an answer to those prayers. “There’s no other explanation other than the Lord,” she says.
So where is the healing power of music in all of this? While Godwin had regained her abilities to speak, move, and learn, facts and skills she had acquired in her seven years of life were now lost to her. For example, Godwin had begun piano studies before the accident. She lost all memory of those minimal studies, along with most factual information she had learned in school. Though she could remember friends and family, she could not recall other material.
In addition to carefully relearning what she had lost from school, she recommenced piano study, having to start from scratch. In the sixth grade, she began to play the flute, which she loved, “partly because I only had one clef to worry about.” She started band in middle school and learned to play the saxophone. Her second attempt at piano gave her music reading skills. She became confident in instrumental music and found learning and memorizing music to be quite easy for her. She became so proficient that she participated in all-state band and all-state symphonic band.
Her mother encouraged her to sing throughout her life, and while she had a desire to sing, she felt most comfortable with the flute—singing was “outside of her box.” She had sung in church, but she was new to solo singing. Her flute teacher encouraged her to add a sung element to her senior recital. It was at this time that she decided to share the story of her accident and miraculous recovery, and did so through a video presentation.
While preparing her recital and video, she was studying the hemispheres of the brain in school, where she learned that the right side of the brain (the side that was damaged in her injury) controls creativity, art, and music. It is amazing that she was able to recover at all—and even more amazing that she is able to participate in artistic endeavors such as music.
After she presented her video telling about her accident, she sang “There Is a Fountain” (see sidebar below) and told her recital audience that she believes music is made for comfort and enjoyment. “For the first time in a performance, I felt like I was totally wrapped in a cocoon—it was just me, and the Lord, and music.” She felt like she could put aside technique and immerse herself in singing as a form of worship, and through it, achieved a powerful performance.
Godwin’s story of recovery and participation in singing after a head injury is unusual, but researchers have found that singing can help “rewire” the brain. Stroke patients who have lost the ability to speak are able to relearn the skill by singing, according to a BBC News report by Victoria Gill. This is partly because music engages more than just the right side that controls creativity—it is also controlled by parts of the brain that control the muscles we use to create the beautiful sounds. Musical study helps develop brain connections—not just in instances of brain injury, but also in development in children.
For Godwin, it is more than that. She has continued her study in both flute and voice, and is currently double majoring in the two instruments at the University of Mobile. She sees music as a tool for human expression. “Music is such a gift,” she says. “I know this because it was taken away from me and then restored.”
Against all odds and statistics for head injuries like hers, she is not only able to study music, but to memorize it quite easily. She attributes her ability to memorize, both in music and other coursework, to her musical study. Research supports this, indicating that musical study enhances other academic pursuits. In 2010, scientists from Northwestern University published results in Nature Reviews Neuroscience that demonstrated that music influenced subjects’ skills including speech, language, memory, attention, and the ability to express emotions vocally.
Once you know Godwin’s story, it’s easy to understand her passion for music. And when you get to know her, it’s clear that her passion rarely wanes. But for those of us who have never thought of the possibility that we might lose our gift, Godwin is a reminder to appreciate the work that we do. How many times have you been to a rehearsal that you couldn’t wait to leave? A performance you just wished was over so that you could move on to the next thing? We often take for granted our abilities to perform, teach, and study something that changes lives every day—both in the listener and in the performer.
“The biggest thing for me is that music is such a gift,” Godwin says. “If there’s one thing I can communicate to other musicians, it is that [music] is a gift . . . that’s not to be taken lightly. We should be thankful for it. . . . It is a sweet escape from our lives.”
