Wouldn’t you think a wife should recognize her husband? Even if they were newlyweds, I would think she would be familiar enough with him that seeing him walking down the street should ring a bell. But, I apparently would be wrong.
Shortly after my wife and I were married, we were visiting a small town in Wyoming. I’d gone into the store and my wife was outside with my mother. When I returned from a different direction than my wife was expecting, it took her a few seconds to realize who I was – although, she’d been looking at me the whole time. Of course, I gave her a hard time about checking out the cowboy she saw walking down the street. (Hopefully, she thought I was at least as good looking as her husband).
I did find it a little odd that she hadn’t recognized me. I guess I could chalk it up to the fact that we were in a strange town, or that I wasn’t where she’d thought I would be - or something. Maybe the three or four years she’d known me at that point wasn’t quite long enough to recognize me from a distance. Whatever the reason, I really didn’t think she was going senile – yet. Several years later though, I began to wonder.
I was driving down the freeway in my semi, when my wife and one of our daughters passed me - my daughter was driving and my wife was in the passenger seat. I’d seen the car coming in my mirror, and when they went by, I waved – and got a blank stare. She didn’t know me! I waved again – still no response. And it gets worse. Later, I learned my daughter had told her it was me they were passing and my wife had said she didn’t think so.
All right, to be fair, the sun had gone down, and it was getting a little dark. Still, I would think after twenty years or so of being married to me, the woman should recognize her own husband! I realized I have aged, but not that much.
But then, maybe I shouldn’t be too critical. Not long ago, I pulled into my driveway and wondered who that was trimming roses in the yard. She looked kind of familiar, I thought, but it was quite a long few seconds before I recognized her. Yeah, you guessed it. It was my wife.
