Your post made me think about this for the first time. We have no children. Our Cats do not have opposable thumbs. But I do have a history of Alzheimer's in my family. We lost the lady that raised me to that horrible disease. My Grandma Hazel. And it skips a generation right? Cuz my Dad is 82 and still doing good. My Gram was mentally gone by her late 70's but lived into her 80's.
What I am saying is I may need to use this to remember who I was...
Alzheimer's is a terrible thing! It doesn't really seem to run very strongly in our family, but quite a few of my older relative battled dementia in there later years.
I think I'm okay for the moment touchwood, but there are already pieces of my somewhat distant past memory that feel a bit like Swiss cheese. I just as well chronicle some of those things while they're still available in the old memory banks!
I always enjoyed it when my auntie - who raised me - would talk about some of the interesting events and adventures from her own and the family's past. But my cousins and I always had to really bug her to allow us to record these things so that they would be available for future generations. She always felt like nobody would care. All these years later, what would be the great grandkids to her generation find the whole thing fascinating so we're glad we went to the trouble.
I am right there with you on the swiss cheese memories. It seem with mine it is the short term as of now. The minute to minute, day to day. Past life events seem ok for now. I am 57. Seems way too early to me for the forgetfulness.
My short-term memory has always been a bit dodgy. But I attribute that to ADHD rather than an actual memory problem. Even when I was a teenager I would drive my mom nuts because I couldn't remember the simplest things from 5 minutes ago!