​I am writing this right here, right now before I forget what I am writing about.

Yes, that has been a large problem for me this year—getting older.

​In my seventy-second year on this planet, I forget which planet I was on previously to this one.

This year, I have noticed how I seem to be getting older each day. Well, there would be a problem if I wasn’t getting older each day. I would either be six feet (or about 1.8 metres, for the younger folk) underground. Or, I might even go up in smoke. I guess I will never know.

I once knew a man who, every time I said goodbye to him, would answer, “See you when you’re a bit older.” At first, I would think about it. Then I realized—yes, I would be older, even if it was only five minutes later.

I know I am getting older. A couple of things stand out—for example, I don’t work around the garden for as long as I used to. I get tired and exhausted long before I ever used to. I could work all day, with the occasional break for coffee and lunch, then get back into it. These days, it’s more of a lengthy coffee break and a short spell of work.

This reminds me of a job interview I went for many years ago. It wasn’t in a factory or an office building, just a few people sitting around a table. Over in the corner was a small shed with a workbench in it. A few tools sat on the bench, but not much action was going on.

I thought to myself, What sort of workplace is this? Anyway, I was directed to the manager’s office. A guy was sitting at his desk. He told me to come in and relax. He said my number one priority in this place was to relax—not to get too stressed and just enjoy myself.

He said he thought I would enjoy working at his business. He told me I would be tasting tea and coffee for eight hours each day. Then, for fifteen minutes in the morning, and again in the afternoon, I would have a break to go and work in the small shed. Lunch was wherever I wanted it.

I didn’t take the job because I was never meant to sit around all day. I liked to be busy, active, and doing something. Then I reached my seventy-second year—that’s when the memory of the tea-and-coffee job came back to me. It’s because I only have short-term memory loss at this stage.

It seems I finally started that job this year. I have no control over it.

It’s technology and climate change. It’s ruined everything. I know it’s not just me—a lot of people at our weekly coffee meetings say the same thing. All sorts of weird things happen. Our keys are never where we leave them, things jump out in front of us... The list goes on.
The Sun is hotter. The Winters are colder. That’s a fact. Things are further away than they used to be—especially the toilet in the middle of the night.

One thing I do know: I’m Right Here, Right Now.


Tom Barnaby
​November 2024

​This is the first time this year I have been stumped about what I would write about for this month’s memoir.

Early in the year when I read the topics for each month, I was sure I had a story ready and waiting to be written.

Right here, right now, this current life I am living is so full on, so busy.
​
The thing is, I don’t regret a minute of it. In the last 12 months, since hearing about U3A when I attended the Benalla Festival, my life has been nonstop.

My story started with attending the ‘Family Research—Beginners’ class. It was great learning about my ancestry.  I found, and still find, it fascinating,

I came across a newspaper story from March 1928, where a lady had committed suicide by cutting her own throat with a razor blade. The lady was my Great Grandmother.

I also did a DNA test with Ancestry.  Once I got the results back, it was great, they told me where I had come from, parts of the UK, and parts of Europe.

Then I got a list of hundreds of people all around the world that my DNA was matched with by Ancestry. They came from everywhere, especially the UK, around Europe, America, Australia, Canada.  There was only one person I was matched with that I knew, a niece living in Melbourne. There were second and third cousins, through to about eighth cousins.

This is where it starts getting exciting. I received an email one day from a man in Warwickshire, England, which is where I came from.  He claimed he was a second or third cousin and that we had the same Great Grandparents on my mother’s side. He told me he was sorry to see that my mother had passed away recently, and she had. He knew a lot about my mum, her family, her husband and how many kids they had, but not their names.

Over the course of a few emails to each other, he told me about another person who was in his eighties, who he thought might be a distant cousin too. We got in touch through my late cousin’s daughter who knew of him by name, because he visits her grandmother, who is also my Mum’s sister and my Aunt. This man’s son emailed some information from my Mum’s side. It was a 111-page document which he asked his son to send me. Certificates, stories, photos. One particular photo showed my Mum as a two-year-old flower girl at a wedding. Wow!

I also enrolled in another U3A course. “As Time Goes By” Memoir Writing.
Both Family Research and Memoirs are consuming my current life, my past life and to a degree, my future life.

What I have learnt and continue to learn about my predecessors through Family Research and by reflecting on my earlier life through my Memoirs, is certainly keeping me very busy ‘Right Here, Right Now!


Tom Barnaby
October 2023