A life in the day of.........................

[Grannie G]

Thanks Winnie

I am appreciating a good phase and a good home. It is making life so much easier for me.
I have had to chase the dummy cigarettes up. They seem to have got lost in the post and another pack is being sent. Somehow I doubt Dhiren will accept them. I imagine he will know the difference.
We`ll see.
How is your husband`s athlete`s foot Winnie? is it clearing up.

 

[milly123]

sylvia harol gave over smoking years before his dementur started im so glad he would never have been safe with a cigaret he had know idea i had been away still better than pineing for us isnt it milly

 

[Nan2seven]

Dear Sylvia - Your remark "I still have problems with faces" made me smile, although I am sorry you have had a problem with a cataract. I have terrible problems with recognising faces and have done all my life - there is a proper word for it but I can never remember it - and my eyesight is not to blame. It has resulted in some very embarrassing moments in the past but now I just apologise and explain "I can't remember faces." If I should ever get some form of dementia myself .... Hmm. It would be tricky, wouldn't it.

Love, Nan XXX

 

[Grannie G]

he had know idea i had been away still better than pineing for us isnt it

Much better Milly. I agree with you.

Quote Nan2seven
I have terrible problems with recognising faces and have done all my life -

Well that`s a first Nan. I have never heard it from anyone else before. Perhaps it has nothing to do with my eyesight. Maybe it`s just me.

 

[Sandy]

Face Blindness

Nan's right it is a recognised condition (so to speak ) called prosopagnosia or "face blindness".

I heard a fascinating interview on Radio 4 of a woman who has this condition.

This site explains it a bit better (I think that there is a link to the Radio 4 interview at the bottom of the page):

http://www.faceblind.org/research/index.html

Like most of these things, there is a range of how much it affects people's abilities. Some people have difficulty recognizing family and close friends, others may only have difficulty recognising people that they have met infrequently.

I think I read somewhere that 2% of the adult population has this condition to a greater or lesser degree.

Take care,

 

[Grannie G]

Thanks Sandy.
I will explore the links further when I have time. I`m sure my problems are visual but you never know.

 

[Nan2seven]

Prosopagnosia

Thank you, Sandy, for coming up with the word. Will go now and have a look at your link.

Sylvia, perhaps you and I are part of that two per cent..... I meet so many people who say "Oh, I forget names but I never forget a face." Oh, I wish!

It is particularly bad if I meet someone "out of context", i.e. an immediate neighbour in an office I once worked in, and a young couple down on the beach whom we had met two days previously in a mutual friends' house for dinner (but it HAD been the first time I had met them, at the dinner.)

These days I tend to wander around with a little half-smile on my face and hope that They/Whoever will address me first.

Love, Nan XXX

 

[Grannie G]

The `out of context` is quite significant. I met a woman who used to work in our newsagents, and failed to recognize her in outdoor clothes, in the street, instead of behind the counter.

Children I worked with, suddenly became shy with me if they met me out of school.

I don`t know if this is the same or different.

 

[Canadian Joanne]

I've never been good with faces

I have to see a person a few times before it really clicks with me. Of course, if I've seen photos that's almost as good. I've been like this all my life and I have had very poor vision all my life.

Out of context is also very important to me. I don't think I would recognize the Queen if I saw her on the street.

I used to be unbeatable in remembering names though. Now I'm forgetting those also.

 

[jenniferpa]

Is there a name for the reverse? When you recognize people in the street but have no idea 1) what their names are and 2) where you know them from?

 

[sue38]

When you recognize people in the street but have no idea 1) what their names are and 2) where you know them from?

That's me. I always recognise a face, just have no blinking idea who they are. TV programmes and films are the worst when you see an actor you recognise and spend the rest of the programme/film going 'What's s/he been in???'

My mum on the other hand has great difficulty in recognising faces. So far she has failed to recognise:

- My sister's husband of 20 years (because she saw him 'out of context')
- Her sister (because she had 'a silly hat on')
-Me (because I had 'sunglasses on')

Just to be clear, my mum doesn't have dementia.

 

[Nan2seven]

Dear Sylvia,

I have read Sandy's link and saw that people who have difficulty in recognising faces use other methods to help, in that they notice "hair, clothing, gait and voice." I use all of those and would add to the list colouring, build, posture and gestures - and the colour of their eyes.

And I am a dab hand at recognising voices: can identify all those actors who do the voiceovers on TV ads and also some TV trailers. But very often by the time I recognise the voice "on the street", the moment has come and gone when I should have identified the person I have met.

Do you find you also have to use pointers like the ones above to help you identify people you meet (whom you should know)?

Love, Nan XXX

 

[scarletpauline]

HAHA this last happened to me some years ago at our out of town shopping mall, I saw a familiar face suddenly, face to face, we both said Hello! Blowed if I know who she was, I have always wondered It's pretty much the same with actors, I see them on TV and think I know their faces, where did I see them before? Pauline x

 

[Grannie G]

Do you find you also have to use pointers like the ones above to help you identify people you meet (whom you should know)?

All the time Nan.

When my son was a teenager and all his friends kept changing their appearance and sound; long hair, afro perms, voices breaking etc. they would knock on for him and if I answered the door would say, `Hello Mrs. G. It`s Simon, or David, or whoever,. Is Paul in?`

 

[Nan2seven]

Sounds to me like you could be - wait while I consult my piece of paper beside me here - prosopagnosic too!

Love, Nan XXX

 

[Chrissyan]

I definitely am, I am sure people think I am rude. I hope I never witness a crime, because if the police asked me for a description of the perpetrator they would think I was being deliberately obstructive, because I would be unable to remember. I couldn't even do a photo fit of my own son. I will do that test, but not tonight as I have had two glasses of wine.

Pleased to catch up with you Sylvia & so glad the home has worked so well for both you & Dirhan.

 

[Winnie Kjaer]

This is a really interesting thread. I have suffered with this problem all my life. It is so bad that I can be with a person and get really friendly and so on. Months, years later I meet them again and things can have happened, and when they say I have met you before it was me that so and so, I look baffled and say was that you, I would never have known that. I simply can't put past and present together unles I see people regularly.

All the other problem with seing people out of context and that is me too. I tell people I am hopeless with faces, but I am bad with names too. If I call a person by the wrong name ones, then that sticks instead of their real name, and I can remember the wrong name, but never peoples real names. Some idiot I am, but at least I tell people and it is a joke to them.

I always put it down to meeting so many people in the trade and all the staff we have gone through over 40 odd years, but I suppose that is just an excuse.

It will never chance now, I would not remember the pointers either.

I just accept it now.

 

[Grannie G]

And I thought I was the only one.

 

[Winnie Kjaer]

I don't suppose many of us are really unique if you think about it. Quite nice too to be one of many I think!!!!!!!!

I should be in bed by now. I must go down, I can hear my husband is bright awake now. Night Night. x

 

[Grannie G]

Pleased to catch up with you Sylvia & so glad the home has worked so well for both you & Dirhan.

Thanks Chrissy. How good to hear from you.