this is "nightline." tonight, eternal sunshine. stopping time to savor time with those battling dementia. the recreated city within a city, comforting the elderly and easing the hardship on caregivers, plus, seeking clarity. the "i don't want all" pop star skyrocketing of the music charts. the singer opening up about her journey to stardom and her unapologet unapologetic truth. >> yes, i'm transgender. it's important to be an artist first. and remembering rhoda.

>> but rhoda, you look sensational without makeup. >> a tribute to actress valerie harper. but first, the "nightline" five.

thanks for joining us. it's a step back in time as well

as a home away from home for those suffering from dementia. this oasis is helping patients and caregivers. >> reporter: from its beaches, to its ballpark, san diego is every bit a contemporary city. but just a few miles away, in the town of chula vista, inside this warehouse, is a time machine. where from its diner and its movie house, to its barber shop, post-world war ii america is alive once more. those who come here each weekday can feel the warm embrace of the sweetly familiar, happier times and treasures that they cherished. >> yes, it's a beautiful car, believe me. >> reporter: is that a thunderbird? that looks about right. ye uare, dareenter designed to soothe those in the early stages of dementia. for families like jacki's, it's a lifesaver. >> it just makes my day, knowing that my mom is happy, smiling

and it just makes me go, "oh." >> reporter: kimberly's mother has alzheimer's, the most common cause of dementia. which afflicts 5 million americans and millions more who are their relatives, often blindsided by their loved one's sudden decline. >> i didn't realize that my mom had been s -- slipping guess. and to this day, it d -- kinda hurts me. but -- >> why does it hurt? >> because -- because i wasn't pay -- because i wasn't -- i wasn't paying attention to my mom. and it -- it took for somebody else to just kinda tug at me and say, "is everything okay with your mom?" and it wasn't. >> reporter: the sparkling woman kim and her family knew and loved all their lives, had once yearned for the bright lights, jacki performing in show after show at the starlight musical theatre in san diego. >> she's so f -- fun, vivacious,

full of smiles. that was the good old days of my mom. >> reporter: for jacki, those same memories have faded like an old photo, as we paged through scrapbooks, jacki struggled to remember moments and faces from her past, including her own father. >> i just want to see, i want to figure this out. these things are very interesting there -- that's -- up here is myself and is another one. >> reporter: how does it make you feel when she says, "who is that"? >> it's sad. it's sad. she has aphasia, along with the dementia and the alzheimer's. i'm the caregiver. i'm also -- a mom of teenagers. so they say the stan -- the sandwich generation. and there are so many times where i feel that pull. >> reporter: her mother's dependence has stretched kimberly to the breaking point. >> my daughter will call and she'll be like, "mom, when are

you coming home?" and -- and i'm thinking, "okay, i'm coming home." and i can't -- you know, because she needs me too. because she needs me too. but what my daughter doesn't know or realize is that my mom needs me too. >> reporter: when kimberly discovered town square. it was a much-needed relief. for people like jacki, it's crafted to look and feel as life once did. ♪ scott tarde developed the concept of town square. >> it is a fully immersive environment based on a concept called reminiscence therapy, which really takes people back to where their strongest memories are, which for our participants is typically in the 1950s and 60s. >> reporter: cinical studies have shown that reminiscence therapy helps out with insomnia- families say that for the length of a school day, town square

gives their loved ones nostalgic hours of fun. >> what they remember most is from their 12th year to the 25th. so when they go see the juke box they're just like i'm going to play a song and they can do it. >> reporter: each weekday, those in attendance are moved as a group room- to-room gently guided to take part in activities with one another. town square is modeled after san diego itself, making the prompts all the more tangible for its native daughters and sons, like jimmy lydon. a teenaged star during the golden age of cinema, jimmy gave a young elizabeth taylor her first screen kiss in 1947's "cynthia." >> he has dementia. sometimes he gets up in the middle of the night and says he has to go to work and the studio is waiting for him. >> reporter: now 95, he spends what appear to be joyful hours having lunch in the diner, interacting with friends,

>> i know that he's well cared-for. >> reporter: treatment an aging u.s. population stands to confront a dramatic increase in those with dementia. family members who now provide more than 18 billion hours of unpaid care, may be eager for town-square-style assistance. >> i was getting really stressed out because i was trying to, you know, make everything happen didn't know where to start. >> reporter: tanya carr knew her mother mary to be a proud and feisty veteran, ready to take credit on the day in 1991 when tanya graduated college. >> done the cooking, i have done the financing, and i think that this half is mine! >> financing! i did a lot of it myself! >> this is mine! >> it's hers! i don't know a more amazing woman. you know, it sounds like a cliché that my mom is my hero but she really is. i'm in so much admiration to

this day. self-reliant, feisty, always very self-assured. >> reporter: now, that feisty streak has come under siege, her mother had to surrender her driver's license in the wake of an alzheimer's diagnosis. >> i'd go over in the mornings before work. she'd be laying on the couch in her nightie and i'd say "what's wrong?" she says "i just don't feel good." and i think she was a little depressed. i think she just didn't feel a purpose. rather than focus on being sad about it, i focused on "what can we do for her? how can we help her?" >> reporter: town square, she says, changed all that for her mother. >> she is hilarious. she'll walk in and they'll say miss mary. she hugs and kisses everybody and puts on a show. she feels dignity, she feels needed. it's affordable care. instead of paying thousands literally thousands in a month, under one hundred dollars a day for her to be where i'd rather have her. >> reporter: for peter ross, who

hopes to franchise town square, keeping costs down is one of the most important aspects of the business at -- for a full -- for a half day, it's an affordable alternative to nursing homes. >> we want to make it available to everybody. one of the biggest challenges in this country is isolation. socialization for our seniors, town square gives us a chance to come in and socialize. >> reporter: life's unavoidable changes can put stress on anyone. these families say town square helps their loved ones sail through the rough waters of early dementia. >> when i come here, i'm accepted. >> reporter: for even as their memories recede in the distance, who they were endures in the hearts of their children and grandchildren. >> we're celebrating life. we're celebrating grandma. celebrating my mom. >> reporter: and so here, near the pacific ocean, their sunsets are brilliant ones. i think i get a high five on that.

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♪ ♪ new sichuan hot chicken. for a heart breaking limited time only at panda express. kim is a force to beon witl stage with her songs and her image, but her rise to flame is blazing trails in the transgender community. here's another look at her story. >> kim! kim!

kim! ♪ >> reporter: music's new pop princess has a story to tell. and kim petras has an audience eager to listen. what is it that makes the kim petras touch so special? >> i think i think i've studied pop music really, really hard my entire life, and i think that's -- that's my number one strength is that. but also i'm always trying to do new things. i don't like repeating myself. >> reporter: she's reached heights of fame so far, untouched by any other transgender artist in the music industry. she says her identity influences her work, but doesn't define it. you want your music to speak for itself which i think it does. >> it's important to me to be an artist first and to fight for transgender rights but not have that be everything that defines me. >> you give us the greatest songs, and the greatest looks, and also like a deep truth.

and nobody is what you are. >> she's so unapologetically herself and i think it's like, really inspiring. >> reporter: her rise to the top feels like an overnight success. but this music idol has been in the game for a decade now. ♪ ♪ i want all my clothes designer i want someone else to buy them ♪ >> reporter: two years ago, she blasted on to the charts with a new anthem for millenials "i don't want it at all." ♪ >> reporter: the song, featured a cameo by paris hilton. thri something she deribewh i down with her in front of some of her biggest fans, part of abc's pride speakers series. anthem and you said it was heavily you said that it was heavily inspired by madonna's "material girl." >> yeah, no, they're absolutely bratty. i mean this song is so bratty. it's just like my bratty fantasy. it kind of it got sparked by

this visit to sephora where i was. i just closed like an amazing publishing deal. so my manager was like get whatever you want i'll buy it. and if somebody says that like i'm going in. >> reporter: you're going all in. >> i went i went all the way in. that's literally what the cashier said to my manager. he was like just close your eyes and swipe it sweetie. and it was really. and that's that was when the song was born. >> reporter: her music, a fantasy filled world. songs with glossy club beats, a temporary escape from life's cruel realities. >> growing up i could never go to the concerts i wanted to go to because i didn't have enough money. and i remember saving up for a gaga born this way ball and like screaming every single word out. yeah and like all my worries were gone and that was like that's what pop music to me is supposed to do. make people forget about the problems and that's like my goal in life to do that. ♪ >> reporter: her goal fulfilled in hit after hit.

from singles like "heart to break." ♪ >> reporter: to "faded." >> reporter: all of it unapologetically pop. >> i don't believe in like guilty pleasure. i don't feel guilty for listening to anything. >> reporter: the german-born singer first made headlines at 16-years-old as one of the youngest people to undergo the gender-confirmation process. since then, petras has owned her image and sound, releasing all her music independently. claiming more than 140 million streams across all platforms. now the 26-year-old is launching a new project called "clarity" and a new tour. this is the first tour that you've headlined, congratulations. >> thank you so much. >> sold out now. >> that's right.

♪ >> reporter: it also marks a shift in tone for the pop star. >> it started out with the song "broken", which is about me being heartbroken and going through a rough breakup and feeling really lost in life. my personal life was just like hmm, trash. >> reporter: so you poured it all into your music. >> i poured it into my music. writing songs is kind of my therapy. >> reporter: fans were first drawn to her music by her videos, like this cover of "wake me up." her sound soon capturing attention in the music industry and catapulting her into real recording studios. >> what i learned from my story is that it's really important to speak about it. i get so many beautiful comments from people around the world.

my music and video whery hones any those early interviews helping change the conversation about trans stars, making their identity part of their artistry. >> i love the fact that we have someone who is out and vocal and proud. >> it's bubblegum pop but has an edge. >> took a 14 hour flight to get to this concert. >> she's top music. she's saving it. >> how many have heard her in a gay bar or club? you can cheer. >> i feel like i was raised in gay clubs. like my whole life i was going to gay clubs, hanging without my gay homies. they're my family, they're my friends. my whole life, basically, at this point is a gay club. it's meant the world to me to have people want to listen to my songs and, you know, sing back

the lyrics that i'm writing and relate to it. it's really made me feel like i belong. >> reporter: once her daydream, now her whole life is a diva's cocktail of rehearsals. wardrobe changes. >> take off jacket. >> reporter: and concert lineups. >> it's about 20 seconds, 30 seconds intro. >> reporter: but it always comes back to her and now her work is reminding them to be brave and keep dreaming. >> i want topospso was really scared of it, because back in the day, transgender was the only thing people wanted to talk to me about. i'm not scared that people say i'm using my identity or the gay community. because i'm a gay, i'm not

scared. ♪ la, la, la, la, la >> our thanks to paula. and coming up, remembering valerie harper. why i've got thr of 1 2 3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy. the power of 1-2-3. ♪ trelegy 1-2-3 trelegy. with trelegy and the power of 1 2 3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works 3 ways to open airways, keep them open and reduce inflammation for 24 hours of better breathing. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. trelegy is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. think your copd medicine is doing enough?

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and finally tonight, remembering valerie harper. >> happy -- >> she was always our perfect gal pal. she brought rhoda to life as the wisecracking upstairs neighbor in the mary tyler moore show. and in 1974, rhoda got her own show and a chance to play the lead. her wedding to joe, one of the . toughest role,it lung an 2013, revealing she was suffering from a rare form of terminal brain cancer. despite the disease, harper put on a brave face, charging forward and taking to the stage, this time on "dancing with the stars." harper won four emmies throughout her illustrious

career. valerie harper died today. she was 80. and she will no doubt be missed. that's "nightline" for tonight. you can always catch our full episodes on hulu. goodnight, america. have a safe weekend.

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