Time passing

Today, I went to the dentist's (a Ukrainian woman) for a check-up and a bit of cleaning.

As I talked to the receptionist, who checked me off her list, I noticed a new dental assistant smiling very nicely at me.

After about 5 minutes in the waiting room, I'm called into the treatment room and asked to sit in the dental chair and as the new assistant puts the bib around my neck, she says: "Erkennen Sie mich noch?" ("Do you still recognise me?")

And I wanted to reply, "I'm sorry., but I can't remember you from the last time", when I suddenly look at her name badge and read 'Elif' and then I look at the surname 'Akyol'.

The last time I had seen Elif, she was about 6.5 or 7 years old. I remember going up the stairwell to my flat one floor above hers and her mum was standing at the door to their flat talking to someone. Elif rushed out of their flat towards me shouting, "Frau Jones, Frau Jones. Ich kann LESEN!" ("I can READ!")

So we sat on a step and she very proudly read to me out of the book she had been waving about in the air.

And now the small child is 18 years old, training to be a dental assistant and looking into my mouth. The poor thing.

Eleven and a half years seem to have passed and yet it only seems like three.

Personally, I still feel like 28 physically and 14 mentally and the only way I can really notice the passage of time is to hear how old the children in my life now are.

My sister's friend Susan - well, I've known her since she was 12 and I still can't imagine her any older than 17 or 20 and yet she now has three children in their late teens. How is this possible when I still don't feel like a grown-up myself?

It's a mystery to me where all this time goes.