When old memories become dominant?
I've been noticing that my mom is recalling very old memories with much more frequency, more than I've ever seen. And I mean OLD memories that I never heard of, especially things about the early days with my dad. She got pregnant with me at 16 so pretty young. It's also a little strange because my entire life my mom was not one to talk about past memories much. Never anything about her childhood or early years, now it's popping up quite a bit. And in the last 20+ years since my dad died she really hasn't talked about him much either until recently.
I always knew that short term memory is most effected, and my mom's short term memory is getting worse. But does this also correlate to the recall of these old memories?
Yesterday we had plans to watch football at my place like every Sunday. My mom and I are both huge fans of the same team. When I saw her Saturday I reminded her of the game and said I would make chili. Well the games on for 15 mins and she is still not here so I call and she had totally forgotten about it. Later she was telling me about an old singer my dad liked and kept saying it was his all time favorite. I never heard of this, and I was close to my dad. It must have been a very early memory. Then later at night she texted me a wiki link about that same singer, so she was still thinking about it. How she managed to text the link when she can barely work her iPhone these days was also surprising.
Anyhow just wondering if more frequent recall of these old memories is a sign of progression or just a nothing burger and I shouldn't think much of it?
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I don't correct her, I just go along with it. It's just an interesting turn of events that's become more frequent with my mom.
Is it a sign of progression? I keep asking that question to myself but it has to be. I'm just so afraid of what's to come. So many unknowns.
That’s interesting.
I was attending this caregiver support group for awhile. It was led by a social worker and meetings were held at an assisted living facility close to my home.
Some of the people in the meetings were the elderly who lived there.
This is an assisted living facility in a wealthy area. The amenities are very nice. There is a woman living in the facility who attends the meetings. She is married to a man that has dementia. His memories are fading but is remembering from way back in his past.
This man used to be an excellent pool player. On the third floor there is a pool table, a poker table and other games that they entertain themselves with.
The woman told her husband that she had some shopping to do. She still drives and in good shape. She walked with her husband to the game room.
She saw to it that one of his buddies would stay in the room with him and they could shoot a few games of pool while she was running her errands.
The men and a few others were in the game room. His friend asked him to play a game of pool. His wife said he hadn’t played in years but she thought he might enjoy playing again if he remembered how.
He started playing and something clicked. He beat his buddy and everyone in the room. His name is Charlie.
So his wife got back to the facility. His friend walked him back to their room. She said to her husband, “So Charlie, how did you enjoy shooting pool again?” He told her that he didn’t play pool. She asked his friend if Charlie remembered how to shoot pool. The friend then told her he beat everyone in the room.
Isn’t it odd how the brain works?
oooh, I've found a youtube video that explains it much better than I did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SpQxD90lyE&feature=emb_logo
You explained it just fine!