On the Tip of My Tongue: The Appropriate Response

Reader Contribution by Nancy Nemec
Published on April 14, 2010
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This is such a great place to retire! My friends here have the answers to so many problems and are so willing to share. I just spent some time in Kansas with my two older sisters, and we had a great time talking and remembering and catching up on our families. We found that we had one little problem in common, and I was happy to tell them the solution I had recently learned.

It seems that as we get older we have trouble remembering or saying things that are “on the tip of my tongue.” When I worked in senior housing and nursing homes, I remember saying that a resident had “some trouble with word-finding.” But when it is you – it is very frustrating. My husband and I are lucky. We have been married so long that we can usually fill in the word for the other one; sort of like two halves make a whole. But there are times when we are not together, or when we both draw a blank.

The ultimate solution to this problem, however, is the wonderful phrase, “When do you need to know?” (WDYNTK?) This is the definitive answer because you always think of the answer later.

For example: “What was Mary’s first husband’s name? You know, the one that ran off with that cousin of Bob’s who taught school.”
“When do you need to know?”

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