The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

When I met my husband Jerry, I knew a lot of his good friends from years back, but every now and then he would say, “Look, there’s a close friend of mine.” Then, usually, he would have a conversation with the guy, and not introduce me. He would, though, always profusely apologize afterwards, for not introducing me, as he forgot his friend’s name.

“You’re really good friends with the guy and you don’t know his name?” Weird, I thought. Then there were the times I would ask if he knew someone and he would say, “No, doesn’t ring a bell.” A few weeks later I would be with Jerry when I would bump into that same person and Jerry would give the guy a bear hug. “You know him?” I would ask. “Know him? I love the guy, we go way back, “Jerry would say. “Really, because that’s the guy you said you didn’t know a few weeks ago.”

Jerry on the other hand, never called me any name other than Judy and sweetie. I, though, unfortunately called him David (my ex husband’s name) pretty often. The crazy thing was, that I didn’t even realize I was doing it. First time I did it he laughed and said, “Did I do something wrong?” After a while he didn’t even mention it. He was a good sport. And as bad as he was with names, he never once called me his ex wife’s name (who by the way I happen to really like and get along with).

In all fairness to Jerry, when speaking to my ex husband, I very often call him Jerry. I was once out with my good friends, Lynn, Lisa, Henny and Fay, when I was telling them that my mother-in-law was coming for Shabbos. They looked at me like I was crazy and said, “She is ??” “Yes” I replied, “she comes every other Shabbos.” They said, “She comes every other Shabbos?!? “Yes, and she cooks a ton of stuff and always brings it along,” I added. “She what”? they said in unison. “She comes to you and cooks as well—that’s so strange.”

“What’s so strange, she’s my mother in law, I don’t understand why you’re all so aghast,” I stammered. “Judy, you said David’s mother, not Jerry’s mother,” they replied in unison. That is when I started to worry about my memory. I never realized that I was even doing it. I would call my neighbor by her husband’s ex wife’s name and do the same with my current sister-in-law. Most people would say that because I speak very quickly and tend to be doing lots of things at the same time I would just get confused. Jerry agreed.