Finding love can be a daunting challenge to begin with, but for one Saanich couple the real struggle began when one of them forgot they had found it in the first place.
In 2017, Saanich resident Laura Faganello suffered a devastating brain injury after a pole fell on her head while setting up for a work event.
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The incident left her with a crippling memory loss, forcing her to have to relearn how to read, write, and speak coherently, learn to live with the short and long term memory loss, and cope with constant pain.
One of the biggest impacts of the injury, however, was the fact that it made her forget marrying her husband 9 months prior to the accident.
“My next clear memory is of waking up thinking I was 17 years old, and not knowing who Brayden was,” Faganello shares in a Facebook post.
“My memory of meeting, falling in love with, and marrying Brayden was gone.”
The unnerving situation led to a period of anger and depression for Faganello, but eventually she came to terms with the fact that her memory had not yet come back.
“It’s really hard to feel completely devoted to a marriage when you feel like you just woke up to it one day,” she writes.
“Even though I didn’t really know who Brayden was, I saw how kind and patient he was with me… I wanted to try to make it work. I took off my rings, and I told him I wanted to date him. So, we started dating again.”
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Fast forward to August 19th 2019, which is when Brayden proposed to Laura for the second time, and she said yes for the second time.
The couple will be getting married again next year on their fourth wedding anniversary.
“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.”
