MEMORY
© 2002 Lorraine Dahl
Why is it that we become forgetful? Old age? Not paying attention? Selfishness? So busy with our own lives that we “tune others out”?
How often in your thirties did you forget small things such as car keys or grocery lists? Did you notice it more in your fifties? Pictures of faces come to mind but no name to go with them? Is that when you began to think it was part of the aging process?
Then the sixties hit you and HARD.
Fear sets in. Dementia? Alzheimer’s? What?
You lose things you had in your hand only moments before and after retracing your steps again and again, the item is nowhere to be found. Why?
In my sixties I find this happening more frequently.
What will happen in my seventies?
I sit patiently while friends in their eighties struggle for the first name of a family member. Their minds are still sharp except for the familiar names that slip away. Could it be that many of the people who were a part of their lives in childhood and youth have passed on and there are so many new names to remember?
We ALL want to hold on to the memories of the past but time fades away many of those memories. We seem to remember only what we wish to, or is that just the way it seems?
We remember good and bad; fun and sorrow; love and hate; sunshine and darkness; friendship and (hopefully) not many enemies.
Our friendships carry us through many trying times. Love of family is great but friendship that you can totally count on is wonderful! Sometimes family and friendship blend and that is a special blessing.
These wonderful people help make our memories while gently and patiently helping us when our memory fails us.
