By Doris Schroeder
As I was trying to remember why I had really come into the Dollar Store, I heard a familiar voice call out my name. It was my friend Bonnie and we stopped to chat a minute. She told me she had just been to the doctor for a certain pain she had experienced and when she got there, it was completely gone. Noticing the wrap around my own arm for a blood test I had had that very morning, I told her of my experience the same way. It started me thinking (once again) how that happens more often than not. (Don’t you love that phrase?) Perhaps that is the reason we seniors are scheduled to see our doctors every three months.
I used to laugh at the way older people used to complain about forgetting things, but then of course, I was younger then. Sometimes it even irritated me a little that they couldn’t remember everything I told them and I thought they weren’t even trying! I know better now. The problem is our brains are so packed full of thoughts and information, there is little room for our memory bank to record anymore.
That is probably the reason my little 5-year-old great grandson can operate a computer better than me! He has more storage space to learn new things.
I know, I’ve been saying that for the last twenty years, but it is true.’ I used to learn things quickly and although I just think I’ll remember something, by the next hour, it is completely gone! That, of course, happens with people’s names. Sometimes people help me to remember. I have a friend named Nyla and I remember her name just fine. In the beginning, she told me to think of the abbreviation of New York and Los Angeles and I always know her name.
Many of you, like me, used to brag “we’d never grow old!” We chose to think that unlike the growing masses of senior population, age would never happen to us. We would stay eternally young and, of course, not experience any of the disabilities of an older generation. Did we eat our words? O course! Does that keep us from really living? It shouldn’t!
I know I am so thankful that God has allowed me to live in America. I thought that when I was a young girl, through my teenage years, through 64 years of marriage and helping with our carpet business, and now as we are still going strong in some of our endeavors. I have decided as long as I am on this earth, God has a reason for me to be here. Writing has become my passion and so that is what He wants me to do in the time I have left. I don’t want to spend any of my time in things that do not matter. Life is too precious.
It’s those irritating little health problems that slow me down that bug me. While the body begins shifting gears, the brain still wants to move in high gear
and take off, but the body won’t cooperate. I wonder “where did I put that piece of paper, my purse, or the calendar with my schedule?” If I weren’t sane, I’d think someone comes in the night and hides these things just to aggravate me! Sill, I’m sure everything I can’t find is in a safe and secure place…somewhere. If I can’t find it now, I will find it eventually, I just don’t know when! The trouble is, like Charlie says, I have put it in a special place so I won’t forget where it is and that is why I can’t find it!
The reason I don’t remember certain things is because it’s packed away in my brain so tightly with all the other knowledge; it takes awhile to dig it out. That is another reason I sometimes remember things in the middle of the night!
Once upon a time, many years ago, our young pastor asked me “Doris; do you ever think of the hereafter?” I was happy to tell him that “Yes, I have! Many times I go down to the basement and I have to stop and think ‘what am I here after?’
And so, my friends, life does go on and we all do get older along the way. Just remember that if we have accepted Jesus into our life and are part of God’s family…the best is coming, when we will be in heaven with him forever! And that I will not forget!
Doris appreciates your comments and can be reached at [email protected]
