QUEENS, N.Y. — Monday afternoons at the Atria Forest Hills assisted living mean it's time for “Music & Memories with Ira."

The playlist includes songs like “Sunrise, Sunset” from “Fiddler on the Roof” and “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. Resident Ira Rubin runs the weekly gatherings to remind his neighbors of happy times through song.

"You realize vaguely you're 77-years-old but the voice in your mind, you're still 25 or 30-years-old,” Rubin said. “And this music helps transport you back."

Rubin's love of music started decades ago as a teenager watching American Bandstand.

"They could dance and I could not,” he said jokingly.

Rubin grew up to be a statistician and a life partner to Marilyn.

"I used to say, and I meant it, if there was no Marilyn, there was no Ira," he said.

They were together for three and a half decades. But when Marilyn unexpectedly passed away 12 years ago, he says the music stopped.

"For three years after that, I was nowhere," Rubin recalled.

Rubin's friends brought him back. And he started listening to music again. When he moved to the Atria, he looked for more ways to get involved.

“I thought 'What do I have to offer that may be of value to them?'” he said. “And what came to mind was music."

Each week, these seniors sing and bop to songs from back in the day.

"You're sitting there and you're thinking 'This is just what I want to hear,'” said Veronica Adams, one of Rubin’s regulars. “He, he brings out things I didn't remember I knew."

Rubin has even grown to appreciate newer artists.

"I learned to like Lady Gaga,” he said. “In the beginning I thought 'Really? She's like a Madonna rip-off.' But she's so much more than that."

Rubin says the music group and the volunteering has brought harmony to his life.

"When we talk about the meaning of life and the purpose of life, the purpose of life is giving to others," he added.

So, for using music to help his neighbors recall the sunrises and sunsets of their lives, Ira Rubin is our latest New Yorker of the Week.