It is important to remember today. Not because anything particular happened, but because nothing particular happened.

We woke and drank coffee. Then while I worked in my office, Ralph read. For a while he had stopped reading, and I assumed books, like movies, had become too hard for him to follow. But I seem to have been wrong. Today he picked up Leonardo’s Brain, by Leonard Shlain, about Da Vinci’s genius–not exactly a light romp or what I would suggest to a reader who has trouble remembering a joke by the time he hears the punch line. Ralph is finding the book “fascinating”.

We had lunch and he read some more while I walked with a friend. Now he has gone for a “walk” with the dogs—they walk while he drives beside them in the truck. Soon we’ll have dinner and watch Sunday television.

So, a normal Sunday. Except Ralph’s conversation is sharper today, his attention more focused.

I know better than to believe that Ralph is suddenly “ getting better.” But it feels important to appreciate this moment of respite: A reason to rejoice that while the thread/threat of memory loss has woven itself into the fabric of our lives, it has not yet pulled the warp and woof askew.