Roll Call

The roll call has begun. Rick, my husband, and I, notice that when either of us talks to one of our granddaughters, we may go through the roll call. For example, if Rick is talking to Caitlin, he might say, "Claire, Sylvie, Caitlin." We do not blurt out the list of females in the family but stumble through them because the correct name escapes us. Does this phenomenon come with age?

My grandfather O'Brien did the roll call as well. If he was talking to me, he said, "Monnie, Mary, Esther, Marie," the last name always the one to whom he was speaking. 

Granda did not always do the roll call however. It happened as he aged, in the last years before he died at the age of seventy-two. His mind was sharp but the name retrieval was not. I came to expect the litany during conversations, knowing that he would arrive at my name as he always did.

                      Nan and Granda

Nan was different though. She did not do the roll call. The names disappeared from her mind over time. Nan lived to be eighty-six and suffered from vascular dementia. She lost all memory, not just names. Her family experienced the long sad goodbye.

So, it sounds like the roll call stage has arrived for us . We may as well enjoy this stage too. We cannot change it, but we can laugh and remember with a smile those special people who have gone before us.