My memory is an odd thing. I can meet a stranger and if I bump into them years later I will be able to remember their name, family history, date of birth (if given!), how long they have lived somewhere and probably what they had for breakfast on the day we met. On the other hand, I have been known to go up to a close friend whom I've known for many years and forget their name. I have never understood the bizarre behaviour of my memory but have often hoped that someone would invent a plug-in expansion pack for my brain that would let me store things and access them instantly with 100% accuracy and recall.
Like many people though, there are some things in life that I wish I could forget as simply as selecting the files and deleting them from a computer. For any of you who may have read Gina's blog about the nightmare neighbours we were unfortunate enough to encounter, the years of hell they put us through definitely fell into this category for a long time.
I say 'fell' because things changed a lot over time thanks to Gina and her writing, both on-line in the virtual world of the internet and off-line on her laptop, as she developed her novel into what it is today.
Years ago, whilst in the middle of daily battles for survival, Gina found her way on to an on-line community that provided a place for people with nightmare neighbours to share experiences, give advice and to support each other. For 3 years, her almost daily retelling of our experiences became a hugely popular topic with tens of thousands of visitors to the site.
It was popular for a variety of reasons. Apart from the fact that our experiences managed to cover a surprisingly large variety of problems that people had been driven to the forum to ask advice for, Gina's way of dealing with each situation was not only incredibly efficient and often very ingeniuous, it was also always communicated to others with a great deal of humour. Gina's humour did not just help us survive a the time, it helped many people to deal with their situations too, something that was confirmed not long ago when a former 'victim' made contact with her to say that they did not believe they would still be here if it were not for her support. A heartwarming and sincere comment from someone who had one of the worst antagonisers we had come across but also a shocking reminder of how bad things can get.
Now, a few years later, the healing process continues. A while ago she decided to start writing a novel about our experiences and as part of her creative process Gina likes me to read out loud each section that she completes. I did not know what to expect as, even though it was a long time ago since we had any serious issues, I remained angry and resentful at what we had been put through. Any humour that Gina had injected at the time had long been forgotten leaving only haunting and bitter memories that I avoided recalling at great lengths.
At first I was reluctant about reading what she had written, but the reluctance soon disappeared, only to be replaced by laughter. I know I cannot be objective as I remember the true events as if they happened moments ago but seeing Gina's fictional characters playing out parodies of a few of their ridiculous and bizarre attempts at blackmail, harrasment, threats and intimidation (to name just a few) is just hilarious. I am going to read the whole book out loud to Gina again as soon as my man-flu goes otherwise I will just kill myself from the laugh induced coughing and spluttering.
Who needs to erase memories when they can be re-written to put a smile on your face. Oh, by the way, I just want to re-assure you that she has never murdered a neighbour to the best of my knowledge.
