Memory Test
Sometimes you have to smile in the face of sadness. On Saturday we lost another family member to Alzheimer’s disease.
Aunt Peggy was a strong, beautiful woman for whom family meant everything. She wasn’t famous or infamous, she was sometimes irreverent, always strong and she always enjoyed a good laugh.
When she first became ill she would send me a joke a week poking fun at her memory lapses. Eventually she couldn’t remember how to use the keyboard, or even why she wanted to. The jokes stopped and bit by bit the lost pieces of whom she had been and who we are. But we will never forget the love and the joy she brought to her family.
Today, when I attend her memorial service I will remember her laugh and her absolute delight in a joke well told.
This is for you, Aunt Peggy.
Memory Test
Three elderly men are at the doctor's office for a memory test. The doctor asks the first man, "What is three times three?" "274," is his reply. The doctor rolls his eyes and looks up at the ceiling, and says to the second man, "It's your turn. What is three times three?" "Tuesday," replies the second man. The doctor shakes his head sadly, then asks the third man, "Okay, your turn. What's three times three?" "Nine," says the third man. "That's great!" says the doctor. "How did you get that?" "Simple," he says, "just subtract 274 from Tuesday."