If you were bedridden for 9 years, would your friends and family remember you when you returned to walking again? Mine didn't, in fact they forgot me so hard that an impersonator took my place in their lives for 9 years. How does this happen?

If you were bedridden for 9 years, would your friends and family remember you when you returned to walking again?

Mine didn't, in fact they forgot me so hard that an impersonator took my place in their lives for 9 years. How does this happen?

I had a wild experience today, and it has made me question: how fast do YOU forget people you know? Like details about them? I ask because, this was someone who knows me offline, face to face, local friend, who hasn't seen me in about a year, but knows me, and knows my car... specifically knows my cars... a 1992 Volvo, that is fully mural painted, with a giant pink jellfish on the hood,, a purple unicorn on one side, a blue merman and a seraphum angle on the other side, and a purple dragon on the back. Also, has a huge four foot long wheelchair carrier on the back, with my website url painted in yellow daisies. This is the same car that for over a decade had 2.5 million marbles glued to it.

I build art cars. I have NEVER not once in 50 years ever owned a car that was NOT an art car. Some of my cars are very, very, very, very famaous *cough-TheRealChristineakaTheWorld'sMostHauntedCar-madefamousbyStephenKing-akaI'mtheREALGypsywitchfromThinner-cough*. My motorhome glows in the dark, yes, it's painted with blacklight neon pink and neon lime green metal flake bass boat paint.

I'm kind of a little bit famous, not only for my cars, but also for being one of the few authors on the planet to have sold over ten million copies of my books, most of which have pictures of my cars instead of pictures of me the author in the author bio, because my cars are more famous then I am.

I am also known for my cloths, and more recently my wheelchair, because I still wear the traditional garb of my people, we are Gypsies, and that means I wear what is often mistaken for Muslim/hyjabi because I wear head scarfs, long veils, long kaftan, long kimono-like robes, great kilts, and huge ruahna shawls, most of which are hand woven in bright colours and thick embroidery, sequins, and beadwork that would make Liberace proud.

I have never dressed "normal" (by American standards) and I've never had a normal car, and one of my cars is so famous it has 30million fans, and I've had to keep it in storage for over twenty years, because it's so famous I can't take it out without being mobbed by it's fans: THOUSANDS of them.

The Volvo is not quite as famous as the Dodge, but it's almost. And it too is to the point where, I can't even park it in my driveway because my driveway faces the main road, and I have to daily deal with dozens of tourists in my driveway taking pictures of themselves with my car if I leave it in the driveway. I have to park it on a side street around the back, so that it can not be seen from the main road.

And that, insaly famous car, is the car in question here. I've owned the Volvo since 2006, it is my daily driver, BUT, ever since buying it, it has ALWAYS had issues with cold weather. It is after all an antique car, nearly forty years old, that I am using as my daily driver. And so, because I actually care about keeping my cars running, and don't buy a new car every year like Americans do, that means I also, keep my car off the road, once deep winter arrives.

This year, deep winter arrived, mid December, and so two weeks before Christmas, as I have done every year since 2006, I packed up my car and put it in storage for the winter. I'll take it out of storage when winter shows signs of leaving, which given how it is going so far this year, means I likely will not be using my car until mid March or later.

So, this person, who knows me, and knows my car... had comments to say today about "my" car. The specifics of the comments are not important. What was important was "my" car was upsetting them a great deal and they informed me of this, as they had just seen “my” car minutes prior.

Needless to say this confused me greatly, because my car has been in a storage unit for a little over two months now and is still there.

I told them this.

They were now equally as confused as I was.

Then they explained which car they were talking about.

It was just a plain, ordinary, normal, looks like the millions of other cars in America that look just like it average car.

That's not your car?

Nope.

Why would it be?

I'm KNOWN for a neon orange car, a glow in the dark green and pink blacklight car, and a muralled and rhinestone'd car... I'm known for a wardrobe that rivals Liberaces in both colour and rhinestones... more recently I'm also known for a neon yellow and orange, glow in the dark wheelchair, I'm known for book covers in the guadeiest shades of eye blinding pink and purple...

I'm legally blind since birth, I can not see shades of red, brown, grey, or black, I can only see neon shades of pink, orange, yellow, and teal blue... so EVERYTHING I do, my book covers, my clothes, my wheelchair, and my cars are always ONLY in those colours because I can't see other colours... why would you think, a car that was NOT neon pink, day glow orange, or glow in the dark lime green, was mine?

But the thing is... this is someone who knows me personally, offline, someone who I don't think is aware I'm famous (because most locals don't, I like my privacy), but, they ARE someone who in the summer when my car is not in storage sees my car almost every single day... so they KNOW the antique Volvo with the wild neon paint job that looks like it drove out of the 1960s, is my car. They also know I'm in a wheelchair and can't go out of the house without the wheelchair so can't go in ANYONE'S car unless their car is equipped with wheelchair transportability.

The car in question, not only a fairly newish aged car of common drab colour, also does not have a wheelchair carrier, so, that too should have been obvious.

But...

Here's the thing...

So, it turns out, because this person has not seen me in over a year, they forgot I was in a wheelchair and they forgot my car is a work of psychedelic art on wheels, and ... the car they were complaining about was parked in front of my apartment, you know, in a city that has 27k on street parked cars, so no body parked on the street is parked in front of their own house... so they just assumed it was my car.

But... back to the question at the start...

When you are dealing with common, average, same old same old carbon copy cars that all look alike, or when you are dealing with Americans who own such cars.... I can understand how you forget them, because, they are arguably forgettable. Out of the factory they all look exactly the same to millions of other cars.

But, when you have a car like mine... how do you forget that? Or, when someone has been using a wheelchair for 13 years, over a decade now, how do you forget that?

I'm just left to wonder... obviously there is an issue of memory loss here... but... it seemed like an odd bit of memory exchange.

And it got me to thinking, that this is not the first time such as thing has happened (first time with this person), it actually has been happening quite a lot since 2021.

See, I became crippled in 2013 and was bedridden from 2013 to 2021... so, I vanished completely 100% from church, college, work, and online/social media/my blogs/etc. Gone without a trace, because I was paralyzed, severed spine, paralyzed arms and legs, and it took from 2013 to 2021 to relearn to use my fingers, hands, arms, and legs.... May 2021, I went outside for the first time in 9 years... that was when you started to see me doing my daily "walk around the block" using my wheelchair as a walker, pushing it and leaning on it for support, to try to relearn to walk. The first day it took me over 2 hours to reach the West Cutts Street stop signs, a distance of about 200 feet. Now in 2026 I am able to walk to the dirt road beside the tracks and back in about an hour and a half (a distance of about 750 yards).

In my daily walking i encounter a LOT of people who knew me BEFORE 2013, who are stunned, shocked, and upset to learn I was paralyzed and no one told them... worse... they usually think it must be recent, happened a few weeks ago.... why, because they tell me of a woman with a black car, sometimes they call it a Cadillac, other times a Lincoln, other times a Buick, but always a big fairy new black sedan... whom they THOUGHT was me, in fact, they stopped to talk with her... and one pointed out... "wait, I just remembered, you were born with low functioning Autism, like RainMan, you are almost mute, you can't talk right, she's talks fine; how did I mistake her for you? I never noticed she wasn't you until I just see you now!"

Nearly a dozen different people have told me of this woman, they say she goes by "EelKat" even tells them to call her "EelKat". EelKat is the name of a fictional talking black cat from my novels. I am not EelKat, I have never called myself EelKat. But this woman, who has been impersonating me locally, had MULTIPLE DOZEN locals convinced she was me.

She also convinced people that I believed my WW2 veteran homeless friend to be an "amphibious alien" named Etiole. A homeless transman in his 90s, who was a prisoner of war during WW2, survived a concentration camp, and lives with massive PTSD, unable to be around people, and has horrible burns all over his body disfiguring him. He was a fighter piolet from France, back then still living as a cis-female. He is not an alien, his name is not Etiole, I've never called him an alien, I don't call him Etiole... and yet, this black haired woman has not only convinced dozens of locals, but spread the rumour so far and wide online,, that I found out about it in September 2023 when Coast To Coast AM Radio showed up in my driveway asking to interview me about being an alien abductee! I've never been abducted by aliens, my friend is not an alien, heck, I don't even believe in aliens or any of that other conspiracy theory junk!

My best friend is a World war Two fighter pilot, and you’ve all known that, I’ve been taken care of him since 1978! When that impersonator showed up calling him an alien, that should have been your first red flag that she WAS NOT ME!

And, these local people, since 2021, and my return both to the internet and going outside, after 9 years not online and 9 years bedridden... these local people are all telling me the same thing: "OMG! I thought she was you! I forgot you never wear pants! I forgot your always wear a head scarf! I forgot you wear glasses! (she does not) I forgot you build/drove art cars! I forgot..." It's an endless list of "I forgot this about you..."

And it's not just random locals..... it's my aunts, my uncles, my cousins, people I went to college with for 3 years, people I went to church with for forty years... these are people who knew me up close and personal, people I went to movies with, people I interacted with offline daily for years...

--they FORGOT I was mute and thought nothing of suddenly "me" showing up and talking to them? I’ve only recently just started learning how to talk because I had surgery on my jaw… turns out my jaw bone has been fused shut since infancy and jaw replacement surgery fixed my mutness… but five decades of no vocal chord use my voice is barely above a whisper and ‌always will be, plus I slur words really bad because five decades of writing notes to “speak” in person, means I have no practice with sounding out words, I only know how to write them… how did you not notice this woman SPOKE when I WRITE everything on a notepad for five decades because I was born mute!!!!

--they FORGOT I was legally blind and thought nothing of suddenly "me" showing up and seeing them and not wearing glasses?

Here's one... --they FORGOT I am not white, I am an INDIGENOUS race, a Native American & Persian Gypsy and thought nothing of suddenly "me" showing up SUDDENLY A WHITE PERSON?

--they FORGOT I was Kickapoo Native American, Persian Gypsy, and Mongolian/Asian mix race and thought nothing of suddenly "me" showing up WHITE? Yeah, I’m STILL got my flat Asian face, lidded Asian eyes, huge Native American nose and brown Native American skin, none of my skin colour, eye shape, or facial bone structure changed,... how did you mistake a white person for me? WTH?

HOW does that happen?

Forget that she showed up gibbering madness about aliens… she wasn’t even the same RACE or SKIN COLOUR as me! And THAT didn’t tell you that she was not me?

HOW does that happen?

How do you forget I'm not white?

People see what they WANT to see... and I never realized how MUCH people see what they WANT to see instead of what is ACTUALLY IN FRONT OF THEM.

This woman, whom, I still don't know who she is, and apparently nighter does anyone she's been interacting with... IMPERSONATED ME OFFLINE... interacting with my friends, family, and relatives, for NINE YEARS... WITHOUT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM NOTICEING THAT SHE WAS NOT ME!

And I use to ask why no one ever visited me in the hospital or why no one visited me NOT EVEN ONCE the entire time I was quadriplegic... and now I know the reason is because someone who clearly knew how bad off I was, impersonated me, but they didn't even TRY... they drove around in a car nothing like anything I would own, they wore clothe I wouldn't be caught dead in, they ARE NOT BLIND, NOT MUTE, NOT IN A WHEELCHAIR, and they are WHITE... and no one noticed that I was suddenly miraculously no longer blind, no longer mute, no longer in a wheelchair, no longer brown skinned, no longer wearing dresses, no longer wearing head scarfs, suddenly talking about bizarre things I don't believe in like aliens... and not one of them, not even my relatives recognized that she was not me?

That's what I thought of today, when this person who knows me and my cars, but hasn't seen me in a year, and forgot, both that my car is a wild paint job antique Volvo and I'm in a wheelchair.

I think I am very surprised to realize that it's so easy for so many people to forget glaring details on such extremes.

Most people in my life, had no clue I was bedridden quadriplegics from 2013 to 2021, because, some one who is not even my race, and made zero attempt to look or sound like me, made no attempt to have any of my disabilities... pretended to be me that entire time, and no one noticed the change in race the no longer being blind the no longer being mute, the no longer being a Mormon, the no longer wearing tradition 14th century garb,, the no longer driving art cars... she simply TOLD THEM she was me, used nothing but my name, and was able to live here in Old Orchard and Biddeford, Maine for NINE YEARS passing herself off as me without NO ONE noticing?

Do you realize how terrifying that it.

Do you know what that means?

That means someone can do the same thing to YOU, you who is right now reading this, someone can just take your life and pretend to be you, and they don't even have to look like you, act like you, dress like you, NOTHING, they only have to tell your friends and relatives they ARE you, and no one in your life will have paid enough attention to who you really are, so no one will notice they are not you.

And I KNOW it can happen to any one of you, because it happened to me, and I'm still flabbergasted by how MANY close friends and family members were so easily deceived by someone who didn't even make an effort to look or be like me at all.

I just don't get it. Is the average person's memory really that bad?

|Did you know Drabbles are no longer welcomed on Medium? My Daily Drabbles are now here on Blogger because Drabbles are no longer allowed on Medium - this link tells you what Medium changed and where you can go if you are a drabble writter looking for a platform that still allows Drabbles - there are not many - most platforms do NOT allow 100 word stories! Medium used to be the number one place for publishing drabbles and getting paid for tthem, but as of April 4, 2025 Medium has banned drabbles from distribution. Full details HERE|

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|Three Wizards and a Lighthouse|

In the year 2525, a comet struck the Moon. Now, in 40th century Maine, Earth is frozen, the Moon is fractured, and UnDead Lobsters are a serious problem. And then there's Quaraun: The Pink Necromancer. Most feared super villain on Earth. Possibly the galaxy. Maybe ever. But all he wants is tea, silk embroidery, and a calm evening in his lighthouse.

BoomFuzzy, the Unicorn Lich King of the UnSeelie Court, is Quaraun's dead husband. Technically dead. Officially terrifying. Unofficially the best baker left in the apocalypse.

GhoulSpawn, their brilliant, baffled companion, fell through time from 1978 and never found the way home. Now he juggles tech repairs, running from zombies, and being madly in love with the two most dangerous men of the apocalypse.

This is a collection of short stories. Quiet ones. Weird ones. Possibly haunted ones. Mostly, it's about what happens when the end of the world knocks… and someone still has to do the laundry.

Follow Quaraun at home in his shape-shifting eldritch Black Tower Lighthouse, as he tries (and fails) to enjoy peace, quiet, and pearls while fending off monsters, memories, and the occasional MerMan.

|Three Wizards and a Lighthouse by Wendy Christine Allen - 101 illustrated short stories available on Kindle, paperback, or hardcover.|

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