It seems like a story Nicholas Sparks would write, but this is the true love story of one couple from Canada.
Laura Hart Faganello announced in a Facebook post on Monday, Aug. 19, that she was engaged to her husband Brayden Faganello, two years after she lost her memory after a brain injury. The happy news with the bittersweet story has earned 43,000 likes and 14,000 shares as of this writing.
Before the accident, they first grew close through handwritten letters over a span of eight months, according to the website of their photography company, Faganello Productions. They met in person for the first time in Victoria, Canada and wed in 2016.
However, nine months after their wedding, a large pole fell on Laura’s head while setting up for an event. She said in her post that she woke up and thought that she was 17 years old. “My memory of meeting, falling in love with, and marrying Brayden was gone.”
“Over the course of the past two years since the accident I’ve had to relearn how to read, write, and speak coherently, learn to live with the short and long term memory loss, cope with constant pain, and come to terms with the fact that I’m married to someone I don’t truly know,” she said.
Trying to put the puzzle pieces together of the forgotten years of her life was a difficult process and took a toll on her relationship with Brayden. “It’s really hard to feel completely devoted to a marriage when you feel like you just woke up to it one day,” she explained.
None of her memories with Brayden were returning, so she decided that they should start over again. She was willing to give him a chance, because she “saw how kind and patient he was with me.” “He was sweet and silly and quirky, and I wanted to try to make it work,” she wrote.
After getting to know Brayden again, she fell for him, even if none of her previous memories from him have come back. She said, “Brayden became my best friend, and then my crush, and then my love. I haven’t miraculously gotten my memory and all my old feelings for him back, but I have new feelings and new memories.”
“I’ve learned that love is a choice, and I am choosing to love Brayden,” she declared.
When he proposed on Monday, it was a “yes” for her again. “I’m so grateful for our new beginning and for the happy future we have ahead of us.”
Those who have read their story have been quick to point out that it sounds like the plot of “The Vow,” the 2012 romantic drama based on the real-life story of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter.
A car accident wiped out Krickitt’s memories of her husband 10 weeks after their September 1993 wedding. They dated again and renewed their vows in 1996. Sadly, they split in 2018, as per an Inside Edition report, after Kim had an affair.
Here’s hoping for a happy ending, with memories or not, for the Faganellos. /ra
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