Spare memory

(Chapter 19 Music, Photos and Videos in my book)

Last night, when I was having a private chat with someone on social media, the conversation seemed to go well except for when I didn’t really understand what they typed. I told them that I was going to attend the Alzheimer’s Policy Forum Conferences next month in Washington, D.C. I also added that I was going with a close friend.

They asked me, “Do you have a camera to take?” I replied, “yes.” Then they said, “good, that’s your spare memory.” I’m not sure why, but I just stared at the words on the screen for a few minutes, reading them several times. At first, I was a little insulted by these words, “spare memory”. For a moment, I almost felt like I was going to cry! I didn’t cry or let them know that anything was bothering me.

I think that what they meant was that my camera would help me to remember some of the people and places etc. that I would be experiencing while on this trip.

I’m not really sure why hearing the words, “spare memory” triggered something negatively for me, but it just did. Why was I so sensitive about these two words? Was there anything wrong with what they said? Is this related to the problems that I’ve been having with understanding words?

In thinking about this, perhaps, I'd temporarily forgotten that I have a memory impairment. I don't think that would be impossible for me to do.