© 2014 Marica

Memory joggers

As a young girl I could never understand how my mother could get the names of her children wrong. I am not Diana or Valentina. I am Marica. In my young mind this seemed liked the worst kind of memory lapse.

Fast forward 30 odd years – I found myself doing the same thing. I was horrified. How could I do this? I needed an excuse to justify my actions. Sadly I had none. It just happened. Never once did I think that maybe I was making a bigger deal out of this than I needed to.

Remembering things, from the trivial to the most detailed, has never been a problem for me. That was then. Sadly, these days the situation is very different. At various times panic sets in at this altered situation. Is this early onset dementia? My family laughs at me. I hear them saying, “You have too much going in your head. That’s all it is.” I know they’re right but the physical changes that are associated with ageing also play a role here.

All I can say is thank goodness for lists, alarms, electronic reminders, phone apps and any other memory aid that helps me remember where I need to be and what I need to be doing.

One of the best memory aids is to ask other people to be your personal reminder service. This works brilliantly as I experienced today when I found a note from my daughter reminding me that we were going to the movies together on Wednesday evening. What a nice surprise – I had completely forgotten about it. It was like an unexpected gift. Forgetting isn’t all bad.

Manifesto
24. Every day is a journey. Not a destination.
28. Every day you will be tested.
48. Every day there are things you can’t change. You can change the way you think about them and deal with them.

One Comment