I've surely had my relatively mild (I think?) case of faceblindness my whole life

but I just suddenly was struck by the fact that the earliest I can remember it mattering - the first time I can remember even thinking that perhaps there was something strange about how, or even whether, I recognized people - was the day my father died.

I was waiting at the bus stop to be picked up, and instead of my father it was a strange man, who said that there was a problem and I was supposed to go to our dance school to wait. Naturally I walked rather than riding in his car.

He was the husband of one of the dance teachers. I'd certainly seen him before, at the studio. I just didn't recognize him.

If my father suddenly popped up here and now, looking just the way he did the last time I saw him, there's even odds that I wouldn't recognize him either. I wouldn't be expecting him, after all, and with no context my ability to identify people goes way down.