8:96) Hope O'Keeffe 27-JAN-98 11:07

From Angela's Ashes, the definition of Irish Alzheimers: you forget everything except the grudge. As my grandmother lay dying, my mother asked the nurse why she could no longer speak. The nurse looked startled. "She talks all the time! Mrs. McLaughlin, how are you?" And my grandmother, her eyes closed so that she did not see her daughter, started chattering away. She was speaking, just not to her family.

I wonder, sometimes, at the power of this remembering, this taking the ancient grudge out of your pocket every so often to pet it a bit. It's rather like the old songs and jingles that clutter your dark recesses, slipping out every so often, completely beyond your control. Back, back, foul demon, to the pit that spawned you.