The Mom I Can't Forget

Unfortunately, adult children with parents or relatives with Alzheimer's will choose to quit visiting them, with the sense that loved one will forget the visit within minutes anyways so what difference will it make to come by. However, one researcher questioned this, suggesting that memory was more complex than cognition. He found that if he showed Alzheimer patients movie clips of either happy or sad moments, it left an emotional memory in the patients. Within ten minutes the patients would not remember seeing the clip, but they did know that they felt happy or sad for an inexplicable reason. What this suggests, is that emotional memory has a much longer shelf life than cognitive memory. Though a person may forget what another person did, it is much harder to forget how a person made you feel.

Though I cannot remember all my mom did, I will always remember how loved she made me feel. But to explain that, I would have to explain who she is. She is compassionate where others are indifferent. She is strong where others are weak. She is insightful where others are thoughtless. She sacrifices where others are often selfish. My happiness has been her happiness, and my sadness has been hers.

There are examples of this throughout my life, like the times she would make me laugh when I was determined to be angry, or the times when she would be my conscious that I was trying to ignore. She always saw more in me than I saw in myself. She was endlessly patient with children who required job-like amounts. Though time may take away a lot, it can never take away my love for her and her love for me.