memory

Strange thing happened to me today! I had a sudden rollercoaster ride down memory lane to the 1960s! Rushing around work after my first acute spinally injured patient for ages, I just noticed a striking elderly Jewish lady watching all the ICU goings on from the side ward( she looked like a dark version of Nancy Walker you may remember that she played Valerie Harper's wisecracking mother in Rhoda). Something made me stop and as I know I have an excellent memory for a face I entered her room to say hello.

She surprised me, as before I could say anything she said in a thick European accent "Hello it's John isn't it? I havent seen you since your were a little boy!" This was Betty, a friend of my mother's from the conservative club days of the 1960's and early 1970's. I remembered a score of Fanny Craddock-esque ladies with Thatcher hairstyles and leathery cleavages, that all sat together in their fur stoles with large martinis. Betty was perhaps the most memorable as she had a thick smokers voice that growled like Eartha Kitt, and seeing her brought back all those long forgotten memories of a lonely suburban childhood. I was very touched as she remembered me! And even knew I was in Sheffield (But still thought I was a psychiatric nurse). we chatted for a while, and I only returned to thinking about her only after I left work to walk the dogs on the beach. I found it strange that ancient memories surface so easily when provoked You think that they are gone, done and dusted as it were, but no,they are all lurking there always! just waiting to catch you unawares!