I went to the bedroom to check on Kate about 10:30 this morning. I met her in the hallway as she was about to enter the bath off the guest room next to our bedroom. That is where she fell out of the shower the other day. I stopped her and suggested she shower in our bathroom. I feel it is safer and have steered her toward it each morning since her fall. I walked her into the bathroom and showed her the towels I had gotten out for her. As I was doing that she said, “What’s my name?” I told her and then left her to shower.
We left for lunch right after noon. As we drove to the restaurant, she asked my name. In a few minutes, she asked again. She asked again at the restaurant. Then she asked her name. After that, she asked if we have children. That led into a lot of reminiscing about our family and our marriage. Earlier this morning, I had seen a picture of a couple dining in the early evening on the riverside in Prague with the Charles River Bridge lit in the background. It reminded me of our trip there more than ten years ago. I told her a story of our sitting on the patio of a restaurant near where our friends’ picture was taken. Each table had a cup filled with peanuts. I looked at the table beside us and saw a bird eating the nuts on that table. Kate didn’t remember it but got a kick out of the story.
Over the course of our marriage, we have discovered that many special moments occur serendipitously in ordinary situations. This was one of those times. She seemed to enjoy my recounting of some of our travel experiences. I enjoyed remembering those good times myself. For the first time in quite a while, she addressed me as “MM,” My Memory. I told her I was happy to play that role.
On the way home, she reached over and put her hand on my arm and said, “You know what that means?” I said, “I do, and I feel the same way about you.” Then she said, “And I don’t even know my own name?”
