I was just thinking, why in the world did remember him.

Symbolize to you? What is the one thing about him that if you took everything else away, remains?

Bring up symbolism of different aspects of my dream. Then he would always say “but it’s just a dream”.

I am reminded of the great Jorge Luis Borges story, "Funes the Memorious", about a man who remembered everything, even the contour of the ocean waves on a specific evening years before. For him, it was a form of suffering, which memory can be, which is why I think history had to be invented so that we could learn the lessons of the past, including the ones we'd rather forget.

I exhibit a kind of incredulity that some people around me remember things I consider worse than useless. And I have an apparently unusual ability to remember vast amounts of technical data and languages. Maybe because my mental memory flushing is so efficient at clearing out the useless information.
I also experience being able to access information I haven’t otherwise thought of in decades especially around languages. For instance, while speaking French with someone recently I came up with several words I have had no reason to use since high school (50+ years ago).
Muscle memory is another method for learning and enables musicians and others to remember astonishing amounts of information to be able to perform without music.

I don't remember why I'm angry at someone so I don't carry grudges as a rule. My sister with the good memory does carry grudges.