I'll start with the elephants! I've always had a love and appreciation for the biggest land animals. Its all started in the 70's with elephant jokes: Why were five elephants wearing blue shirts? (wait for it) They were all on the same team! To me, elephants represent memory. An elephant never forgets? People with Alzheimer's and dementia do forget. First: names of friends and family and simple objects; how to get to a familiar place; and ultimately...forgetting how to walk; forgetting how to swallow, forgetting how to breathe and the heart forgetting how to beat. Music for those afflicted with Alzheimer's and other dementias has found it's way into my life in a peculiar way. My mother died in 2007, after which I began to drink heavier and more frequently than normal. I was running a teaching business and small studio in my newly purchased townhome. After two years, the HOA put a stop to homeowners operating a business from their homes. I lost most of my students and most of my income. I began sliding further into debt. I borrowed money from relatives, took out a title loan...a lot of that money could have helped had I not spent so much on alcohol. I was drinking a gallon of vodka every two days. It eventually happened. I drank myself silly on a December day in 2010. I was on the phone with my son telling him I was on my way to pick him up from his mom's. I blacked out and ran into a heavy-duty pickup truck. The truck drove away while I was being put into an ambulance. I can't put into words how God stepped in and made sure that pickup truck was not a family of four in a Prius.