Alzheimers Disease or dementia is a condition that scares me more, far more, than the cancer that was supposed to have claimed me some years ago.
I once worked doing 'foreigners' driving for an undertaker. It's a long story involving me doing a favour for a friend. One day - perhaps - I might blog about it.
Whilst I never tell jokes about dementia and whilst I have a healthy respect for people at a time of bereavement I am also aware that caring for people with dementia and being an undertaker require one to have a well-developed sense of humour if one is not to succumb to mind-numbing heaviness of heart and even depression.
A few weeks ago I posted on Eagleton Notes about Kestrels on Lewis. The reason that has stuck in my mind - indeed preyed upon it - is that I was so sure that I'd never previously seen a Kestrel on Lewis despite having posted about one a few months previously. How could I have forgotten? What else had I forgotten?
Now, unlike my Brother CJ, and my Uncle who had a photographic memory, I have never had a good memory. In fact I have always had an appalling memory. I have to make lists of everything especially things I may need when shopping. Then, of course, I have to remember that I've made a particular list and in the case of a shopping list I have to remember to take it with me [I now use my iPhone for shopping lists which partly gets over that problem].
I was thinking about all this this evening when I put on a DVD whilst I was having my dinner only to discover that it's the umpteenth DVD I've put on that I've already seen. Of course I can't recall the ending any more than I could recall the endings of the others. So I can at least watch it again with a degree of enjoyment.
When I started this post I had some idea in my mind of where it was going and what it was supposed to lead to and how I was going to tie it into being thankful. Now I've forgotten.
Ah well at least I can be thankful that I've always had a bad memory so I have less concern about the possibility that not being able to recall things now is related to age or illness.
For that I am truly thankful.
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When I was a child, I remembered everything because there wasn't so much to remember!
ReplyDeleteGosh Jenny. I must have been a child once too. I wonder if my memory was better then. Actually it must have been a bit better because at school we had to memorise a gospel or an epistle each week. I'd forgotten that. No wonder I can do bible questions in crosswords.
DeleteDelete
On that topic.....can anyone tell me where I've put my sieve?
ReplyDeleteI know I used it recently. I have checked the cupboards and other obvious places several times - no sign of it. I've even checked the less obvious and remotely possible places - no sign. I've even checked places, where, if I'd put it there, I'd be very worried.
Any clues?
Marcel, it'll be somewhere so obvious, like a worktop surface, that you will never see it until you don't need it. I'm sure there must be a name for the Law of Lost Gadgets.
DeleteIt's in the fruit bowl, of course!
DeleteMarcel.
DeleteAsk Molly.
CJ - what's a fruit bowl? Is that the same as a chip pan ?
DeleteYou only think you have a problem. I can't remember the ends of films as I'm usually asleep when they occur.
ReplyDeleteAs for putting shopping list on a phone....that is brilliant. I have two phones the theory being that I can use either to find the missing one......It is now over thirty hours since I have mislaid both of them.
Perhaps, Adrian that's why I can't remember either. I don't ever recall falling asleep though......
DeleteAdrian, thanks for the spirit booster, however unintentional it was!
DeleteI'm along for this boat ride as well. Actually I have given up trying to remember everything, it's totally impossible to do so.
ReplyDeleteI have many lists and memos on my desk. I watch the same movies sometimes, because I don't always remember the outcome either, but that's my perrogative.
Hang in there GB, you've got lots of company, and there's lots more room in this boat for any others who need to clamber on.
Virginia I'm not terribly sure that having company is all that comforting. I'd rather not, for example, have been on the Titanic (seeing as you were making nautical comparisons!).
DeleteYou are funny!!
DeleteI doubt there's anything seriously wrong with your memory or you wouldn't be able to manage your whole life puzzle across the earth as you do. As long as it's just birds and DVDs you forget about, I think you'll be all right... ;) All it really says is that you had other things on your mind that took priority.
ReplyDeleteMonica...I love you!
Delete♥
DeleteMe - a good memory?? You've obviosuly forgotten all the things I forgot during the summer!!! I used to blame stress but I can't recall why...
ReplyDeleteBut, CJ, you've obviously remembered that you forgot ergo.... This is getting silly!
DeleteIt's a comfort that I'm in such good company. I've always been vague and forgetful but I don't remember being as bad as I am now.
ReplyDeletePauline I've never really been comforted by knowing others are as badly off as I am. It just makes me feel sorry for them too.
DeleteClimbs on board too. Sits in sunny deck chair dreaming about all the fragments of things I remember, and smiling happily but vaguely when spoken to about anything other than shall-we-go-for-a-swim-times, meal-times or over-the-yard-arm-times. :-) <---happy, vague smile.
ReplyDeletelove this, Katherine! I love where you're sitting while you are remembering. ;)
DeleteFrom the number of comments, you've hit a note familiar to many of us! I'm so glad that I'm not alone in this. My youngest swears that I'm not paying attention to a show, be it on TV or at the movies. I am, I am. Recently, I finally said to him, "That's why I'm watching with you!"
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for the kind words on my blog.
BTW I truly enjoy your Thankful Thursdays. I write about what I'm grateful in my journal, but haven't shared them. Perhaps I will, that is, if I can remember! Chuckle inserted here.