I don’t look at Memory Token as a personal blog, but as a memory and thought blog, and not only do I plan to feature news stories like the one below, I hope to have other people post their own memories and tokens, either through interviews or guest blog posts.
Anyway, I read about this story earlier this month and almost didn’t post it because it’s already been discussed or tracked on other blogs a million times. But the idea of the talisman, of the item that represents both the intense love this couple had and its loss, is central here.
NYC Subway Tokens
Originally uploaded by photoshoparama
Originally I was going to call this blog If I Had Alzheimer’s.
Then I read a post on Daily Blog Tips called The 7 Characteristics of Good Domain Names that recommended choosing a domain name that is short and easy to remember and spell.
Grandma Sue just turned 98 on April 7th (although her birth certificate says she was born on May 2, 1910, and she says she was born during Passover that year, which only ran until May 1, 1910, so this is the subject of a whole ‘nother story), and she still plays bridge, listens to the Metropolitan Opera every Saturday morning during the season, reads The New Yorker weekly, and tries to walk 500 steps a day.
At her birthday party Saturday night (incidentally, my grandfather Aaron, her husband, would have turned 100 years old that night, along with Bette Davis), she attributed her longevity to walking and to not eating potato chips because they’re junk. The attendees went briefly silent, realizing that their lust for the fried potato would be the death of them, but anyway…
Grandma can certainly be repetitive (the usual: Have you been eating? Do you have any friends? Are you putting money into the bank?), but in the last couple of years, I’ve noticed that she repeats certain anecdotes to me with regularity.
My only significant experience with Alzheimer’s Disease was my cousins’ grandmother, who developed it sometime in the early 80s.
When I saw her for the last time in 1989, she and I sat on matching bar stools while she discussed the mess of menstruation. It was this continuous loop about the blood and leaking maxipads and [...]
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