The Half Life of Memories
by halflifeofsiblings
I recently sent my sister a personalized gift card with an image of her printed on the front. It is one of my favorite photos of my sister: squinting into the summer sun, flipping her hair with abandon, overcome with joy at riding her little red bicycle.
Oh, that little red bicycle. I coveted that bike. Having outgrown my tricycle, I craved the freedom of two wheels. I longed to race down hills and pop wheelies with the boys in the neighborhood.
My sister knew this, and industrious schemer that she was, she made me pony up a nickel or dime every time I wanted to ride. Every. Single. Time. I resented her as I scrounged for change in my Tootsie-Roll penny bank.
When I sent the gift card, I asked her if she remembered her bike rental scheme.
“Nope,” she said. “I don’t remember that at all.”
Hm.
Mom does not remember it, either, but she laughed when I told her. “That sounds like her,” she said.
We reminisced about the time my sister bought everyone on her Christmas list 99-cent copper wire decorations from a clearance bin. Mom decided to teach her a lesson and forced her to take them back and find real gifts.
“Do you think she remembers that?” I asked.
We laughed. Probably not.
What about your siblings? Do you remember something they have forgotten? Or vice versa?
Siblings share so many experiences, and yet, they hold (and value) such different memories. Do you suspect your sibling(s) of selective forgetting? Have they ever accused you of the same? Why?
[...] she swore–in perfect earnestness–that I was mistaken. The scheme was hers, not mine. Other times, I might share a memory, and she fails to remember it the same way (or at all). Or she interprets an event so differently that I question whether it happened at all–and [...]