Numb

When you get old, things start to happen to you. One of these things is a numbing of the extremities called "peripheral ..." something or other, I can't remember what it's called. The other thing is the memory starts to go. Neuropathy. That's it. "Peripheral Neuropathy." Now, what was I saying? I can't recall...Oh yeah, numbing of the extremities. Sometimes, so severe that a person can't feel their feet hit the floor when they walk. This is beginning to happen to older folks on my wife's side of the family, along with other hidden ailments that are only now starting to manifest: Liver diseases, diabetes, Alzheimer's, dementia, heart problems, stroke. My people are relatively healthy, save for my Dad, now dead from a bad ticker, after suffering several small strokes over a period of five years or so. My mom had some major surgery performed over several months when I was a kid; nobody talked about it then, and nobody talks about it now. Everyone pretends that it didn't happen, didn't exist. Mom is the picture of health now, but still doesn't talk about whatever it was, as if mentioning it will again summon the demons of disease, perhaps this time to fully destroy that which was merely damaged decades ago.