Who are you?????????

[laurence2]

I went to a funeral the other day, their must of been something nearing 500 people in attendance, i could'nt help but look around trying to remember peoples names, i haven't seen the majority of these friends for the best part of 15 years, so maybe my mind was clouded by friends ageing ie going bald, overweight, going grey & wringly etc etc.

I had no problem remembering what i call my ''Real friends''. But it was the ones who you knew, but could'nt put a name to what was my problem, was this because, mentally i would'nt of seen them as close friends so therefore it was easy to forget them over the years, the real frustrating one, was when someone would come up and embrace you, and i could'nt recall them, i would get out of it by saying, hello sunshine, long time no see, until i found out their name eventually.

Have you had a simular experience, and how have you dealt with it

[enigma]

Hey , maybe you really didn't know them Laurence. After we buried my gran , we headed for a meal and a drink where we recognised everyone or at least vaguely recognised most - except for one old woman. She went round offering her condolences to all of my family and saying how very sorry she was and no-one wanted to be rude enough to ask who she was. The buzz went round though , everyone asking who knew her. It finally emerged after she had had a meal with us that no-one DID actually know her and at that moment , a member of staff spotted her and discreetly asked her to leave. It turned out that she was a funeral ligger ! She turned up at all the local funerals and often tagged along afterwards. How creepy is that ? I know what you mean though as it is so easy to lose contact with family and friends and people change as the years go by and I have even bumped into people I once worked with and was quite friendly with but now struggle to remember their names. I try going through the alphabet in my head hoping that it will trigger some kind of memory but it usually takes me about two to three goes ! The thing with funerals is though , people are often too consumed with grief to really notice things like that so I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you haven't seen them for years anyway , then the chances are you may not again for years .... or until the next wedding or funeral. That's just life I guess.

[spurslady]

Similar thing has happened at family funerals people who have been friends with my Aunt or Grandparents coming up hugging and kissing me and I did not have a clue who they were. I bluffed it by saying 'oh hello how are you? I haven't seen you for a long time, how are your family?

One woman was even peering down into my grandads open grave when he had just been laid to rest, and it turned out she did not even know him when I asked her who she was.

I even had one woman call me a liar when at my Aunties funeral (she was only 27) when I said that I was her niece, she reckoned I was too old at 17 to have had her as my Aunt. I did tell that woman to go **** *** as I had had a few underage pints by then.

[Rubyrose]

A guy I went to school with was killed in a car crash a week before xmas and the funeral was between xmas and new year and I couldn't make it.. but he had about 200 people turn up. :o(... Just thought I'd mention that!