Didn’t someone say it’s normal to forget things more as you get older? I can’t recall

A big thing that I worry about as I age is how much stuff I forget.

It seems like I forget a lot but I guess I still remember more than I forget — at least so far. I mean, I remembered to write this. It used to be easy because I wrote nearly every day. But now it’s a couple of times a month and due dates slip up on me.

Some things never change. I was notorious for getting things written just before my deadline or slightly after, sometimes. So try not to notice that this might look a little rushed. I might’ve aged but I haven’t changed.

Bills get paid, food gets brought and medicines get taken but usually not until the last minute. Which reminds me, I need to change the furnace filter. Maybe tomorrow.

I looked up dementia tests online just to reassure myself I wasn’t sliding into the no-memory zone and now I am getting a lot of notifications about memory aids and memory loss studies. I’m going to forget them.

I know real dementia is a terrible thing. I have had relatives suffer from it. Every time you visit them you become whatever person they think you resemble, from whatever part of their memory where their mind currently is.

One old farmer spent his nights plowing fields with his horses, calling out commands and working the reins.

Whenever I forget things I blame it on my attention deficit disorder. And there is a lot of truth in that. If, for instance, someone asks me to do three things by the time they get to the second thing, I’m figuring out how to do the first thing. By the third thing, I am trying to remember the second thing and there is no way I am getting that third thing and may even have forgotten the first thing.

I have a terrible time with that Medicare memory test if they wait a while to ask me to repeat the words they told me.

I am not an easy person to live with, or so I have been told more times than I can remember. Sometimes a leaky memory is not such a bad thing.

If I have to do something that I haven’t done for a while, it might take a few minutes to remember what I have to do. The experts say it is not unusual to forget more as you get older, even familiar things, like names.

If I owe you money, trust that I have forgotten. It seems like there was something else I was going to write, but if so, I have forgotten.

I feel somewhat relieved to be somewhat normal although I probably will forget it soon. I’m just grateful I can still remember the words to “I Only Have Eyes For You.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2024 at 6:00 AM.