Sunday, February 11, 2024

Burnt out ends of smoky days…

If you asked me when my mother passed away, I couldn’t necessarily tell you the exact year because it was many years ago,” Dr. Paul Newhouse, clinical core leader for the Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, said. Almost every older patient has trouble remembering people’s names, Newhouse said.

My father died in 2016. My mother died in 2018. I remember only because I remember their ages when they died. I also remember their birthdates, so I calculate the year of death. My brother’s age at death is somehow less memorable, but as time passes I may work the same mnemonic into memory. 

Why not remember the years? I just don’t. I remember years of birth, but not of death.

This doesn’t mean a damned thing. To anybody; especially me. I can still recite as much of “The Raven”🐦‍⬛ as I managed to memorize in the 5th grade. Some things stick, some don’t.

It’s been 47 years (in May), but I remember those dates quite clearly.

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