Miss Filer

A long time ago, my ex-wife was working in a nursing home in Saratoga. 

One day, she said to me "Didn't you say that you had a teacher named Miss Filer?" 

Well, yes I did, and it turned out that she was a resident there.

I arranged to visit her. When I got to the home's nurses' station, they asked me to wait while they got her ready. While waiting, I asked how she was doing.

"She's OK," was the answer, "She fades in and out.  She's suffering from dementia. She sings little songs that we don't understand."

Well, I did understand.

When they brought me to her room, I introduced myself. She had no idea who I was. But then I said "The nurses tell me that you sing to yourself. Is that right?"

With that, she smiled and her eyes lit up, and Miss Filer and I sang the cosine song.

The sine of thirty is a half.
The cosine is a half square root of three.
And the poor old tangent, yes the silly old tangent is a third square root of three.

I remember that song, clear as a bell. I can't even begin to tell you what a cosine is anymore.

And she would ring a loud bell.  

"Attention class! David has completed a proof!" 

Yeah... I don't remember what a proof is, either. I guess it must have been important.