Cantor’s songs lift many hearts

Donna Faye Marcus sings life’s soundtrack.

She comforts and celebrates people on every stop between birth and the grave, intoning prayers to welcome babies into this life, blessings on couples who wed and psalms to the families of those whose grandparents are nodding toward eternity.

Marcus, a Jewish cantor and chaplain, is not averse to lightening hearts with an occasional aria or show tune as well.

Hospitals, hospices, synagogues and homes are her stage, and her audience crosses faith’s borders.

She jumps in where needed or asked, her auburn eyebrows dancing up and down as she sings.

Christians often request “Amazing Grace,” she says.

“Occasionally, I’ll forget the words,” she acknowledges with a giggle.

“So I hum. I do a lot of humming.”

To make folks happy, she takes requests for secular songs, too.

Marcus sang prayers and German opera to German-born Marianne Bennett last year as Bennett fought lung cancer in a hospice center.

“It was just like an angel came,” said Bennett’s daughter Carol Bennett of Marietta.

“And she sang them in the old German tunes that you don’t hear anymore. Oh, my mother just lit up.”

In February, Marcus showed up in the intensive care unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital and introduced herself to Eileen Broudy Shaw of Alpharetta. Shaw’s mother, Troudy Broudy, had Alzheimer’s and had suffered a stroke.

Shaw said her parents met after World War II while her mother was singing in USO shows to entertain soldiers. Her mother and her aunt had sung a rendition of the Andrews Sisters’ hit record, “Bei Mir Bist du Schoen,” a Yiddish song.

Shaw asked Marcus if she knew it.

“So Donna Faye started singing the song. And one would think that my mom would just lay there, as she had no strength. And then she started singing along with Donna Faye. The complete song! It was one of those moments when you say, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ The whole room just lit up.

“I was the only witness to this thing. So it was really special to me.”

Marcus said she believes her gift of song opens doors for her that are often closed to those outside the circle of family. She gets to see, share with and help people at life’s most important moments.

“You get people at these intense moments in their lives when there is no pretense,” she said.

“It makes me realize how precious every moment is.”

To prepare for that responsibility, she spent a year in Jerusalem, three years in New York in chaplaincy training and four years in graduate school for cantors.

Her work may be a gift for others, but she also receives much from it. At the end of a day, driving home and getting stuck in the inevitable Atlanta traffic does not seem so bad.

“When you’ve just spent time with someone fighting for their last breath, you realize what is really important,” she said.

To hear Donna Faye Marcus sing, go to cantormarcus.com.