Does Pinot Noir Increase Your Memory?
Man I’ve had one of the most challenging days of my life.
How do you say goodbye to your mother?
And she’s not even dead yet?
I’ve got only a few short hours before I hop on a plane
And probably won’t return until I’ve become an unrecognizable face or a short glimpse of recognition, or a new best friend for the day.
Yes, I’ve been through this before with my dad.
Even through to the end, I think he still recognized my face even though he had stopped speaking years prior to his passing, and these memories of that time, of that story stream through my head as I hear my mom ask me for the third time if the wine she is drinking is a pinot noir, because she heard that pinot noir is good for the memory!
What a classic! If that was true surely I would be the world’s memory! Not just have the best memory, I would BE it!
And oh, what memories I would have.
The good, the bad, the ugly.
Oh yeah.
I actually studied to be a winemaker in Burgundy, and those pinot noirs were my first love in France and have remained “good friends” ever since. (more than I can say with my relationship with my ex-husband).
When the twin towers went down in flames and I watched them burn from less than 2 miles away across the Hudson, I felt like Chicken Little with the “sky is falling, the sky is falling” mentality. My solution, drink all the Burgundy in my cellar. And drink I did. For days, weeks, months…
I had an amazing collection of Grand Cru Bourgogne, that dwindled until it was gone. I left all the 1st and 2nd growth Bordeaux sitting in the cellar for decades, like poor cousins that weren’t invited to the dance.
People would ask me what was in my cellar, and in fact that was always the wrong question. It was what was I drinking out of my cellar. I stopped drinking the wines, because the wines, I wanted, the Burgundies, the memory wines were all gone! Nothing but boring cabernet classics…
Yes, it’s all unfair. And apparently I didn’t share enough of the Burgundy with my mother for her to keep up her memory.
I will tell you that this blog has helped me to resolve and see that my memory, my mother’s memory and my memory of my mother are all irrelevant.
What is important is the heart felt connection that one has at all times not just with a physical being, but with the spiritual being present in the physical body, whether that body retains it’s former facilities or not. The soul can still be seen and communicated with. I had someone remind me of that tonight, as I tried to stop crying at the imminent loss of my mother’s memories. Pure gluttony, pure self-indulgence on my part.
I will do my best to say good bye tomorrow at 4:30 am when I have to leave to catch a plane.
And there was my mother’s arm around me whispering “It will all work out.”
I just hope and pray she’s right.
How many ways can you say “I love you” to your family and friends today?
How many ways can you say “I care about you” to your customers and clients today?
