Aging matters

We celebrated my Dad's birthday today. He turns 90 on August 9th. The celebration entailed a come-and-go sort of thing between 2 and 5 PM at Donwood Manor. It was a well-attended affair: brothers, sisters, friends,  aunts, uncles, grandchildren, etc. All of us were busy with visiting and catching up.

Most notable to me was how, over time, one's memory of someone's face, even a person you knew well and, at one time, saw quite often, fades. Confronted by the person twenty (even ten) years later, you wouldn't believe it's the same person, except that someone reliable tells you so. Now this isn't always the case; there are some people who seem not to change one iota, over time.

A few of the people I recognized didn't seem to recognize me at all, and vice versa. When we introduced ourselves to one another there was this incredulity that is, quite frankly, funny. Marj Stoesz (now Wiebe) for instance. I worked with her at Dad's bookstore for a few years. I really like working with her there. She was always cheerful and, kinda cool. I was talking to her father, John Stoesz (the minister who baptized me in the Winkler MB Church), when she came up and, in a polite way, asked my name. I told her mine, she told me hers, and I think her nonplussed look must have been mirrored by mine. I looked and looked and just couldn't find her in my memory. Even now, it's fleeting. I think I have her face in my mind, you know, from "back-in-the-day," but it slips away when I try to place that image beside the face of this person (who I thought, and still think, is attractive) called Marj (Stoesz) Wiebe today (or my memory of her image from a few hours ago). Weird. Ephemeral.

I saw many familiar faces today. People who, twenty years ago, were a lot more present and pivotal in my life than they are today. In most cases I'd riffle through my brain's rollodex hoping to find a hit. It's an interesting, if not occasionally embarrassing, exercise that confronts you with your mind's limitations.

Although I hate name-tags at conferences and meetings where you actually don't know anyone, and you really don't want to know any of them either, but I think they would actually be helpful at gathering like this one. You know what I mean?