Carla was working at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, an organization fundamentally concerned with issues of identity and its expression in cultural forms such as music, which are among the last memories people with dementia lose access to. A series of long and increasingly exciting conversations between Carla and Michael as they drove from facility to facility eventually gave rise to Memory Bridge.

Yetta knew nothing of her role in inspiring the creation of the foundation. She had a quiet, private nature and probably wouldn’t have wanted to take credit in any case. But we are all deeply grateful for her long, loving life, and for the opportunity she is giving many whom she never met to live fuller, more loving lives because of her.