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Thursday, October 11, 2018

Memory Failed


It is hard for me to leave home with all my paraphernalia in tow when I have more than one event on my daily calendar. Last week, I had practice with the family band in a different county, immediately followed by watching my granddaughter perform with the high school band at a football game in yet another county.

I was gathering up my practice items (ukulele, Kindle, music stand, book with every possible chord, tuner, capo) and preparing for the football game (camera, jacket, bag to carry items). As I put everything together, I looked at the stack and thought, Oh, yeah, something’s missing. I’ll go to the closet and get it. Except, when I got to the closet, I couldn’t remember what I needed to get. “Sometimes my memory fails me,” I told my husband. “I can’t remember what I forgot.”

I looked at my watch and made a mad dash for the car. If I left immediately, I wouldn’t be pressed for time.

A couple of miles down the road, I called my mom to tell her I was on the way. “Now, I remember what I intended to bring!” I said. “I thought I would need a cap to keep the sun out of my eyes at the game.”

“I have one I’ll send with you,” she said.

“I’ll be there in plenty of time,” I said. Well, those were optimistic words. First delay was a wreck. The second and longer delay was road construction. I made it in the nick of time and my mom had figured out a strategy for me to make it to the game on time following practice. I left my car in a convenient place so that I wouldn’t have as far to drive to the game.

I met up with my daughter-in-law Stacey and rode to the game with her. At the game, Stacey was helping push equipment onto the field, and I thought I’d do a camera check before the band began their performance. I focused in on Stacey and the button wouldn’t push down. I tried several times, but nothing happened.

I looked at the screen and it said, “Memory card failed.” Well, that was a new one. The card I like to use was sometimes locked. Of course, I only had my camera—the extra battery and cards were in the car.

I took the card out, put it back in. Same message. Again, and again. Finally, success, and I snapped several good photos of my granddaughter dancing, twirling and tossing her flag.

Life certainly gets more complicated when memory fails—whether on my camera or in my brain.

Each of us counts on our memory to help us make it through the day. Dementia impairs memory enough that a person cannot complete daily tasks. Forgetting what I went to the closet to find caused an inconvenience, but it didn’t keep me from doing the things I wanted to do. I consider it a good sign that I eventually remembered my cap and found a substitute.

Without a resolution, my camera would have let me down at a time when I needed it. I’m glad that I resolved the camera issue and that the memory problem was a temporary thing. All it took was resetting the memory card. Now, if only, I can find a way to reset my brain when it lets me down.

Copyright © October 2018 by L.S. Fisher
#ENDALZ

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