Somewhat sadly it seems memory works that way. It's as if over time it gets compressed and generalized in some way. Maybe it depends on the person, but for me

Somewhat sadly it seems memory works that way. It's as if over time it gets compressed and generalized in some way. Maybe it depends on the person, but for me personally I have difficulties imagining what my parents looked like when they were 20 years younger, apart from reciting some specific photos. When someone I see daily gains or loses weight slowly over time it's hard to remember what they looked like in the past. I had a good mental picture of my now deceased cat in my head, but when I got a new cat of with a similar color and fur, the mental image of my previous cat slowly got replaced with how my new cat looks.