Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Hepworth’s hypothesis on short-term memory loss

For the past two weeks, I have been carrying my mother around in my head – or rather a yearning to see my mother. A hopeless melancholic wish to see her has been there at the end of every thought, as I finish every task, at every turn in the road, waking up in the morning, or settling down to sleep at night. Just when I thought I was not going to feel that sadness any more, it sweeps in and stays for a while.

But then yesterday, when the Higgs boson announcement was made, I cheered up. Not because I am into that kind of stuff, but because Ma was. I thought – Ah, she’d be so delighted. She and Dave would be talking excitedly on the phone about it, even now. And the weather changed in my head: weird.

Brains are odd. Mine is odd, anyway. My mother lives in there all of the time, mostly quietly and happily. I wonder if old people lose their short-term memories because their brains are so full of dead people they’ve lost that there isn’t enough room for all the new stuff they encounter.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are not odd! My mother lives with me in my head, too!
Margaret P

Sue Hepworth said...

or maybe we are both odd...