Member-only story
Where Did I Put My Plate
Should I be concerned about my wife’s declining memory
This incident concerned my wife:
She accused me of taking her dinner plate. She had placed a plate on the counter so she could dish out her food. As I took my feast to the TV room, she exclaimed, “Where’s my plate?”
I didn’t know. She was perplexed. She questioned my certainty that I didn’t take it.
“Are you sure you had one,” I asked.
“Yes,” she snapped. “I put it right here and I dished out my meal.”
“Is it in the microwave?” I asked.
She looked at me as the realization set in. She said nothing but slowly opened the microwave door and pulled out her plate.
I laughed. She didn’t.
“That worries me,” she said.
My wife is 59 years old. She sometimes struggles to remember details, or find suitable words for descriptions. But it’s nothing unusual. I do too.
It’s funny. When you get to a certain age, when you forget things, you worry that it might be cognitive decline. At twenty years old, you chalk it up to being forgetful. A slip. No big deal.
That’s how I tried to reassure my wife. It happens to everyone. No big deal. Was I lying?
