Monday, October 29, 2007

When you are 98 years old, I wonder what five memories will still be rolling around your mind?

I sent an hour recently watching my daughter get an “up-do” at the salon for her first high school dance – Homecoming. While watching my daughter be transformed, my mother (who has been our gracious chauffeur while my broken right leg heals) saw a woman in the salon who was a patient at the doctor’s office years ago. Although the woman, who was 98, didn’t readily recall my mother the nurse, her caregiver did. They chatted and the caregiver said that she heard the same five stories over and over. My mom commented that she always had great stories. The freshly glamorized Grand Madame passed us on her scooter and graced us with a funny story about a glass of Scotch.

I’ve decided that as part of my retirement planning, I am going to embark on as many memorable adventures as I can, so that when I’m a 98 year old Grand Madame, I will still have a few great stories to laugh about with strangers in salon.

I’m stockpiling my silo of memories.

6 comments:

just me said...

my father-in-law (age 73 and reasonably healthy) has begun compiling his memories for posterity. this is probably not a bad thing to do at any age, while things are still relatively fresh. In his case, I've noticed that some of the stories I've been hearing for years become more embellished as time goes along.

TAG said...

That is a great idea. It sorta goes along with the old saying about it isn't the number of breaths you take as much as the number of times something takes your breath away.

Frankly, stockpiling these memories is part of why I blog. I don't trust myself to remember all the subtle things. With a written record I don't have to. All I have to do is remember the password that unlocks the treasure chest.

TAG

Anne said...

I was going to say something along the same lines as tag:, if the Internet doesn't break, I'll have all my memories right here on my blog. Will I still be blogging at 98? Will blogger archive my posts back that far?

Oh dear, maybe I should write the memories down.

MarkEC said...

I'm with you tag, Anne.... I am doing this as a living scrapbook of sorts. Hopefully my daughter and her children will one day have an account of some portion of my life. Whether it will make interesting reading, not sure?? Maybe I should start trying to spice it up a bit! Some stories of alien abductions perhaps?

julie said...

I'll tell some of your stories to your kids...and I have some good ones...from our years together at camp, raising our kids, Mexico, church stories, beach stories, Florida, road trips...and they will be full of some tragedy and lots of laughter. Some of the stories will have to wait until they are a little older or we are lots older and don't want to travel anymore...or else, they might not let us go anywhere.

AM Kingsfield said...

Most of my best stories are unbloggable. I am planning on private laughter with my friends in the old-folks home! We'll all have to book a wing in Boca del Vista!