Being remembered after one meeting TWENTY FIVE years ago!!

At an evening art class a fellow student asked if I’d passed my exams ?
I’d passed about 25years before ! He remembered me from a group of students on the boat / train to London to sit out finals . I hadn’t even spoken to him !

I rarely forget a face although names sometimes escape me and cannot always remember immediately from where I know a person.

A small hint will usually bring conversations etc back and DH is always amazed by my capacity for trivia retrieval!

Wow! You obviously made an impact, take it as a wonderful compliment, and one which she didn't have to make as you didn't remember her.

I think it is wonderful you obviously made an impact on her.

I used to run and train work teams in my closest town and lots of people remember me by name and come up to me and talk to me and I have NO IDEA who any of them are My husband jokes that we cannot go anywhere without someone knowing me or talking to me and it even happened at the vaccination centre on the weekend

I went with my elder sister to her Youth Club Reunion, I had never attended the Youth Club and everyone was about 10 years older than me. (I was about 50 at the time). I vaguely knew some of the folk but this balding red haired chap came bounding up to me and said, "I'm Roger. Do you remember when I asked you to dance at the Mecca and you turned me down" I hadn't a clue but I can imagine I did just that. "Well" he rattled on, "I then went and asked another girl and she married me, here she is". What do you say? I mumbled something about my bringing them together but in the back of my head I was thinking, I would only have been about 18 and you would have been nearly 30 and no Adonis. How desperate did he think I looked.

janejudge that happens to me all the time. I have occasional speaking opportunities locally, so people have seen me and heard me speak, but of course I have no idea who they are. I'm afraid that doesn't excuse me though because even with people I've met, or been introduced to, I have no reliable memory for faces or names, unless it's a child. I think being in a classroom has triggered the synapses that relate to children's names and faces, but adults elude me.

My husband is brilliant at remembering Bride and Grooms from 40 odd years ago,he'll even remember the church they were married in and the minister ,and an odd things that happened on the day .Just as well because we've bumped into people all acros the world who recognise him...thing is it was just one wedding photographer they had to remember ,we've photographed nearly 5000 weddings in our careers so it is a remarkable feat ,I think on his part .
The same man cant remember what he had for lunch most days .

It doesn’t surprise me at all GA. Your caring and thoughtful ways towards others has shown clearly and never wavered throughout the years I have read your posts.
Credit where it is due and well deserved.

As a former nurse, I have had a few occasional thanks from people I have no memory of having cared for years ago. I am always pleased to hear no other health issues followed since we last met.

I find Turkish people really good at that. My husband and I were amazed when we were walking through one town and a man shouted at us from a restaurant - we looked over and he said, I remember you, greeted us by name and asked how we were. It turned out we had been in another restaurant he was working in on our first ever visit to Turkey, more than 15 years beforehand. It's happened to us on several occasions over there - they just seem to have an excellent knack for remembering faces and names.

I was lying topless on a beach years ago, in Spain, and heard "Well hello there....." from someone who recognised me from back home.

DD2 took her daughter to a ballet exam. The examiner, the usual mature Cecchetti Society type, took one look at DD and said "I remember you." It must have been one similar exam. thirty years ago.

A friend is moving to a Caribbean island with her dh’s work. They’ve been out to have a look and were introduced to some work colleagues and their spouses. One of the wives said to my friend ‘I know you. You viewed our house in Scotland when we lived there.’ That was some years ago and the newborn baby they had is now 16 years old.

It's a talent I do not have! I'm often embarrassed at my lack of ability to remember names/faces. Hats off to you that can remember people.

I am dreadful at faces and names too …a couple of years ago a lady said hello to me and asked how I was doing I picked up that I should know her so I said I m so sorry I can’t remember your name so she told me and I had to say I m sorry but that doesn’t ring any bells she answered well I used to be your next door neighbour, I still have no recollection of her Well I used to make and sell art and crafts and she told me she’d been in my house to buy some things off me ??‍♂️
It was about 20/30 years ago and there’s been a few neighbours in that house well that’s my excuse and I m sticking to it

Here’s another a school friend asked me the other day if I could remember going to a party dressed as a cowgirls I said no never, she said well nor do I, but look! she had found an old photo of us both at a party dressed as cowgirls we can’t recognise the building and neither of us have any recollection of being cowgirls at a party !!!

My sister has a phenomenal memory and she is 80 today.

Here is a true story last month I was having a manicure the person next to me heard me mention where I used to live 60 years ago and about 80 miles away. She said she used to live in a town nearby which I knew well as my train would go through there everyday when I went to school. She asked me which school and it turns out we went to the same school. ? She said she was 79 and I said the same age as my sister. It turns out they were in the same class. My sister emailed me from Italy to say the girl from her class had married the owner’s son of Robinson Jam and that her birthday was the 7.7.42. !!

My sister reminded me I was always borrowing money off her as a teenager- I have absolutely no memory of this, but I know it will be true. ?

Absolutely not, I can't remember what happened last week.
You must have given a very memorable interview grannyactivist

I seem to be able to remember names and faces even when or if it’s only been a fleeting meeting or something similar in the past and no matter how long ago. I can also normally remember something about the previous meeting which allows for an introduction into conversation. It can be incredibly useful and people are really surprised that I remember them. In contrast my husband can barely the names of his own family!

I have trouble remembering people I met last week, let alone people from twenty five years ago

It seems, though, that you clearly made an impact on this person. You may have said something that was important to them at the time that left an impression or a significant memory there.

Grannyactivist you obviously left your mark at that interview.

I’m not good remembering names these days but for some reason some people and events do stick in my mind from many years ago. Even schooldays and college some characters stand out even though I havn’t seen them for 50yrs, some pleasant some unpleasant.

I was shopping in Marks and Spencer just before the first lockdown when a young man with a little girl stopped me, put his arm around me and kissed me on the cheek. He called me by my first name, asked me how I was and we had quite a lengthy conversation. He recalled sleepovers at my house, lovely breakfasts and asked me how a particular tree in the garden was doing. I had no idea who he was although he was obviously one of my sons' schoolfriends (he asked after both.) My boys are both in their forties now so it must have been at least twenty-five years since I had last seen this man and how he recognised me I have no idea! It sounds mad but the longer we talked the less possible it became for me to ask him who he was.

I was in my local petrol station when a man stopped me and said I had been at college with him in 1970 and that I played netball . He was totally correct.
I play walking netball now!!

I often recognise and remember people from many years ago, primary school even. It's their faces, features, expressions and mannerisms that ring a bell with me but rarely can a remember their names.

Sadly other people don't often remember or recognise me, I guess I'm not very memorable or don't make a big impression on people! Though that can be an advantage sometimes.

Yes one old guy who interviewed me for a job at 17 years old. He was horrible, gruff and laying down rules in a nasty way. I got the job but didn't take it. Everyone there looked unhappy in that office. I couldn't work for him