I’m cooking dinner–washing and chopping vegetables, stirring rice, scurrying back and forth between counters. So, I open the refrigerator door, stare at the shelves, and wonder: what am I looking for here?

Or, I walk into a room and can’t remember what I came there for. Does that ever happen to you?

And, of course, I forget words. I especially forget proper nouns, like names.  Do you forget words?

There’s something else I forget. I forget that I’m an old woman. Inside my mind, I’m much younger than I am in my body. 

I’m always a little surprised when I look in the mirror or when someone refers to me as old. Like my doctor reminds me “At your age, this complaint [with eyes, joint, skin, heart, etc.] is normal and to be expected…” But I didn’t expect to have this problem! Since, in my mind, I’m still a rather young person, it doesn’t seem normal to me if my joints are worn or my eyes get spots.

I wonder: how old will I have to be to remember that I’m old?

Mar 8, 2016