Lost for words

Today, in the middle of a brief conversation, a word dropped out of my mind, the word that would have given purpose and meaning to the conversation. Names have been dropping out of my mind for some time. People have reassured me that this is common, everyone forgets names. But mine is different. I know the name when I started to say what I mean to say, but when I come to articulating the name it is not there. Today the same thing happened to a word. Dementia is a fearful, threatening thing. Losing words is, or could be the beginning of incipient dementia. I try to keep my mind alive, I try to exercise it. But there in the background is the threat that I will end up on a world with no words, with thoughts I can't express and memories I can't share.