It was, as it happens, not scary at all, Agnes. I don’t think. I have no memories of the crash that I can’t verify as false, so there’s no trauma. The closest I get to fear is landing on a plane when we can’t see the ground — that’s when Deb holds my hand. 😊

This happened almost twenty years before I met Deb; years before I even met my first wife. (Who got me through being able to talk about having a traumatic brain injury — when I would make a mistake and people were around, she would smile at them apologetically, pat my hand, and tell them, “You’ll have to forgive Jack, he’s brain-damaged.” Then give me a hug or a kiss. It was really much sweeter than I make it sound, you kind of have to know Linda, she’s a gem.) And other than not being able to be in subs any more, I did okay, once I developed new habits like writing stuff down more and giving up on ever remembering names I was introduced to. Personal digital assistants, and later smart phones, have been wonderful helps!

My mother spent years doing brain exercises. Toward the end, before she was formally diagnosed with dementia but after it was obvious, she would pull up a brain app on her phone, start to do it, and then forget what she was supposed to do and put her phone away. She had built up the habits, but the brain power was gone. Not that keeping mentally active doesn’t help, but sometimes brain apps just help keep you smart about doing brain apps. <shrug>

Always happy to chat with you, dear lady! And you’re talking to somebody who has been accused of over-sharing more than once. 😁