Memories of the past resurface...

One of the interesting things that is happening with my memoir writings is that every now and then I am reminded of things I haven't thought about in years (even decades). Back in 1981, a local ABC station (WHAM Channel 13 in Rochester, NY) did a three-part series on heart attacks featuring my father, a then recent survivor of a heart attack. I partially remembered the name of the reporter who did the story (I thought it was Don Allen) and, while searching for the Toastmaster's group where my father may have been a member, I was told the correct name for the reporter (Don Alhart, now an anchorman for the same station). I decided to contact Don to see if I did remember him correctly and left a voicemail for him at the staion. The next day he texted me back to say that he indeed was the person who led the story. He even remembered that I played violin back then...

I spoke with Don a couple of days later and was amazed at how much he remembered of me and my family, now thirty years later. When he played some snippets of the report over the phone, I didn't even recognize my father's voice, but just hearing about some of his experiences from his own voice gave me a little more insight into the father that I hardly had the opportunity to get to know.

If it weren't for learning about my misophonia last year, that gave me the inspiration to write a memoir, I don't know if I ever would've embarked on the journey revealing so much of my past - some of which I've forgotten over the years... Some of which I never knew.