My father died a few weeks ago and although not connected, for the last few days I have had strong memories of someone (unpleasant) I last saw 32 years ago.

The person from 32 years ago is very strong in my head right now - even googled him and have an up to date image right there in my brain (why on earth did I do that!).

Everything is mixed up in my head and at the moment, the events that happened 32 years ago are clearer than my own father in my head. Like I saw that man more recently than I saw my father.

My question really is, how do we know if a memory was from last week or 20 years ago? How are they represented to us in terms of date order and is there a different impact from a recent memory versus an older one. Actually on second thoughts, I am not sure I know what I am asking, everything is just a little jumbled up right now. Can anyone unjumble me?