Memory Loss and Cognitive Decline

Penny and Stephen’s stories demonstrate how memory loss as a result of old age impacts a person’s life and relationships. Joyce notes that memory loss is one of the things that most frightens the residents of Coopers Chase. It is when Penny is losing her memory that she tells John about the murder she committed, a secret John kills to keeps. Elizabeth has her own secret to keep as well as she tries to hide from the other residents that Stephen is in mental decline.

Osman uses the image of memory as a bogeyman to describe why residents really are not all that interested in Donna's lecture about home safety. It is described that “Memory was the bogeyman that stalked Coopers Chase. Forgetfulness, absentmindedness, muddling up names” (86). The comparison of memory loss and cognitive decline to a thief gives the...