The woman he married woke up without remembering who he was. For her, the man sitting next to his bed was a stranger.
The story of Laura Hart and Brayden Faganello seems to be the plot of a romantic movie, but it really happened.
In 2015, they met in a rare way. While Brayden was engaged in a religious mission in South Africa and Laura studied in Europe, letters began to be written. For eight months their bond grew without video calls and without meetings, relying only on the words put on paper.
When they finally found themselves in Canada, they realized that the relationship deserved to be lived in reality. They fell in love and in July 2016 they married.
Their happiness, however, was broken a few months later.
On April 27, 2017, while helping to prepare an event in British Columbia, Laura was hit on the head by a heavy pole knocked down by the wind. The incident caused her a severe brain injury.
Upon awakening, an important part of his recent memory had disappeared.
Laura was convinced she was 17. He didn't remember Brayden, he didn't remember their marriage and he didn't remember ever falling in love with him.
Many would try to convince her to remember. Brayden made a different choice.
He stood by her without forcing her, accepting that their love should start again from the beginning.
They first returned to be friends. Then they started dating, just like two guys on the first date. Among the memories that Laura keeps with more affection there is a minigolf game, which for her represents the true beginning of their history.
With the passing of time, those feelings disown.
Laura fell in love with the same man again, without remembering the first love lived together.
In 2019 Brayden asked her to marry him a second time. And once again, she replied yes.
The couple celebrated a new ceremony in July 2020, almost in the same days as the first wedding anniversary.
Laura never recovered all lost memories. But he built a new story next to the same person.
One day he summarized everything with a simple and powerful phrase:
"I learned that love is a choice. And I choose to love Brayden. "
Perhaps this is one of the deepest meanings of love: not to live only shared memories, but to continue to choose, even when life forces to start over.