Memento Mori

When I started reading this short story, I was really intrigued. I wanted to know more about the character the narrator was referring to. As I read on, I thought some of the passages became a bit disturbing. Some of the thought that this person is talking about to Earl, the older man, really started confusing me. I wanted so badly to know what was going on. The parts about Earl not remembering his wife's funeral, or even the way that she died, was very sad. Most of the story, referring to Earl, were quite sad. It says that Earl has CRS, or a Backwards Amnesia. I'm not really sure what this means. It seems as though Earl is just in a hospital somewhere, and has such bad memory that he has to remind himself to do every smal simple talk that most people would not even think twice about doing. He has to remind himself to brush his teeth, to look around to make sure he doens't already have a lit cigarette around in his room somewhere, and even to remind him that he now lives in that hospital. He reminds himself to do all these small tasks by posting post-its all over his room. I am not sure what some of the post-its were really saying. The post-it that said Earl was still a "coward" confused me. I feel like this was a post-it reminding himself that if he wants to pass time and have some-what of a normal life, he has to work really hard at it everyday and cannot give up on himself. I think the saddest part of this story were the parts where he cannot remember his own wife's funeral and has to figure it out on his own everyday. He has to go through losing his wife everyday over and over. I also didn't really understand the different settings that kept coming into play. I thought they might have been flashbacks from his life that he was having every once in awhile but I wasn't quite sure. I also am not sure who is the narrator, or the person in the end that gives Earl a bell for his tombstone. I am very curious if this is someone he maybe created in his own mind or if it is actually, in fact, a person. I also was thrown off by the tattoo that Earl has on his arm that read, "I RAPED AND KILLED YOUR WIFE." I starting thinking after this part if that is what happened to his wife and maybe he was the person that did it to his own wife, and maybe he just can't remember. I kept disregarding this thought of mine, because I didn't want to believe that this helpless man did that to his own wife, and cannot even remember any part of it. By the end of the story, I thought to myself that maybe the narrator is actually hi own wife maybe saying things to him that she would if she were still alive. The last part of the story that I wasn't sure on was the part with all th drawings and shapes all over his body. Were these just other tattoos that he got throughout the years. Although I found this story a little disturbing, I am interested to discuss it so that I can figure out the plot a little better. I liked the way this story was written and thought it was very different and interesting.