I am giggling. On Monday afternoon, Husband was in the driveway seasoning his new automatic charcoal smoker/grill, when the neighbor across the street came over to talk. She is a couple of years older than I am, and I was a high school classmate of her younger sister. Our mothers were in the same sewing club. Her family owned the Old Norwegian Boarding House in Luverne in the early years of the 20th century. Her son recently fixed our tires.
Mary asked Husband anxiously how I was doing, as another neighbor, someone we only met once, told her he heard that I had been diagnosed with dementia.
Well, this was quite a surprise! Husband had me come out to reassure Mary that I was fine, and in possession of all my faculties. She gave me an enormous hug, and said she would go have a little talk with the neighbor to let him know he was wrong, and that he had probably mixed me up with another close neighbor who actually has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. We walk our dogs with that woman, whose name is Jeanette. Her husband is a Vietnam Vet with MS and Agent Orange issues.
This is a small town. I am curious if any other residents have heard I have dementia, and how I should address it. Start reciting facts and figures? Wear a sign that says “I am cognitively intact”? Maybe I can act outrageously in public and everyone will forgive me!
How would you manage a situation like this? Ever been the subject of a rumour?
Trail Baboon 
Oh my! Hopefully, when she goes to talk to the neighbor who was spreading the rumor, then it’ll spread the other way? If any rumors have ever been spread about me, no one‘s bothered to enlighten me!!
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Why were they talking about you in the first place? That’s why I would hesitate to move to a small town. If I did, I would let people think whatever they wanted about me.
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I’ve currently got a 33 day Wordle streak going, does that count for anything?
I currently wake up stupid early, so I whip through my NYT morning puzzles and get a morning walk in. That should be good enough for any nosy neighbors!
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Wasband has a son M. born 1977. Lonnngggg story but I met him when he was 5 and his mom was still living in Winona. We lost contact over the years, as we all moved around a lot. He and Husband were reunited in 1998, and we’ve been close family ever since.
We had all moved away from Winona; we returned in 2016, bought a house in center of town. She returned about 5 years ago and bought a house around the corner from us. (I know for a fact she had no idea – she and I are friendly).
I heard from a friend of mine that the rumor going around when she moved in was that Husband had not known about their son! I had my friend set the story straight for the person she had heard it from, but like you, Renee – who knows.
It’s amazing how these things get started, but does anyone else remember that game “Telephone”, where you’d sit in a circle, whisper something to one person, and let it go all around the circle? Unrecognizable by the time it got back to you!
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A jealous workmate started a rumor that I was gay.
I went with the “not that there’s anything wrong with that” and let him stew in his own hate
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I, of course, meant Husband in the first sentence, not Wasband.
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Wow! That’s quite a rumor when you’ve only just returned to your home town! That certainly is what small town living is like.
I guess I’d just be myself. If someone is looking at you in a quizzical way, you could tell them you have been diagnosed with dementia and you’re suddenly, quickly going nuts – APRIL FOOLS!
There probably are rumors about me – I think being slightly odd makes it more likely that people invent things about you – but I haven’t heard them. That’s okay. I know I’m odd. Most women I know don’t love solitude as much as me. I think it strikes many other women as strange and they’re not sure how to deal with me. Who knows? They probably made up a story that I have some tall, dark, handsome lover somewhere, or a hidden fortune. Ha!
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