Leticia Espinales
Life As I See It

Increasingly, it appears I am living in a fog of sorts.

My physician says it is a normal part of the aging process. I, however, continue to be dismayed with walking into a room and standing there wondering what I was there to do or what I went in there to get. It is inevitably followed by my leaving the room and having to come back again to retrieve what I forgot the first time. It is a never-ending cycle.

I use to take pride in having a great memory. My ability to recall a name, person, event or date was superb. Now, it is especially trying whenever I am at a family function and my 76-year-old mother can recall so much more than I. Her memory has never failed her and whenever she reminisces, mine fails me every time.

Some of my friends and even my younger sister are experiencing the same dilemma. I attribute these difficulties to more than age, for surely our diets, lack of proper exercise and sleep as well as daily stresses all are contributing factors to this predicament.

Whatever the cause, I now am reduced to where I was on my first day of school — I remember having a piece of paper with my name and class information pinned onto my school uniform. I suppose it was to avoid getting lost in their system.

Here I am, many years later, and I find myself once again relying on paper. I have a ritual that I repeat every time I prepare to leave the house. Before departing, I not only make sure that the oven and stove are off and the answering machine is on, but I also have to get a note pad and write down all the errands I have to run and what I need to purchase. Continual referral to the list during my outing is essential to ensure a complete and successful outcome.

On the homefront, I maintain an information center in my kitchen which guarantees all vital to-do items are remembered and addressed. I even carry a pocket calendar in my purse and at the beginning of every month I synchronize the information contained in both.

I shiver to think where I would be without the materials I now utilize to remember and carry out activities. If not for those helpful aids, I would probably be watching TV while lounging on the sofa without a care or worry in the world. Sounds like a great idea, right? But I digress …

Now, what was I talking about here?

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