The Music Between Us: Memoir of a Bedside Musician

A Man's Heart Is Healed by Playing Music for Dying People

As a young man, Steve Litwer wanted to be a musician. Largely self-taught on the guitar, he lacked the talent to play professionally, so he chose another career path, working for a series of popular music radio stations in Kansas City, Memphis, and Charlotte.

Needing something good to do when he retired, Steve chose to volunteer as a bedside musician, playing guitar for hospice patients. Unexpectedly, his private performances and companionship offered to those nearing the end of their lives began to unlock long-buried memories of his own past.

The result? Surprising lessons and new insights about the events of his life and finding the path to forgiveness for himself and his mother, for whom he had long held resentment. Mentally ill, she had struggled to raise her sons.

Incorporating moving and funny true stories of people in hospice and their love for the popular music that was the soundtrack of their lives, The Music Between Us explores the mysterious ways that Steve was led to reckon with emotional wounds from childhood that had spilled over into many of his key relationships throughout his life and discover fresh joy. It is a celebration both of music and of the power of human connection.