Voices

Bear's friend from pre-school called him yesterday and left a voicemail message that I listened to last night after Bear was in bed. Thomas was born in China and had a cleft pallette that affected his speech. He's come so far with speech therapy, but I still have a tough time understanding him. I told Bear about the phone call this morning and he said he'd be able to understand it -- so I walked over to the answering machine to play it for him. Thomas is message #24. I have several old messages saved on there from Steve -- just hearing his voice takes me back to a time that was so much simplier and happier. I thought Bear might enjoy hearing them too so I played one and said, with a smile, "do you know who that is??!" Bear said no. I played another. Again, no. I played 4 messages in a row -- and Bear didn't recognize his voice. It just breaks my heart. I've always been afraid of him forgetting Steve but his recollection of memories over the last 13 1/2 months have comforted my fears. But I never thought about Steve's voice and that Bear's recollection of that, over time, would fade.