They went from lovers to strangers to lovers again. It wasn't easy but they knew they were meant for each other.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on September 20, 2019. It has since been updated.
Finding true love is hard enough as it is. When you do manage to experience it, you do your absolute best to never let it go because once it's gone, it's even harder to find it again. But not for this couple. Not only did they find love with each other the first time, but they also found it yet again with one another. Their story is one that will melt your heart.
Two years ago, 23-year-old Laura Faganello underwent a major tragedy when, in a freak accident, a pole fell on her head while she was at work. During a hectic schedule at her workplace, she recalled according to Being, "I was tasked with decorating the tables, so as I was arranging that I heard a gasp from the girls facing me. I looked up, and then heard (and definitely felt!) a loud thump on my head. A large pole (one that took two ladies to set up as it was so heavy and tall) had dislodged in the wind and fell right onto my head. My last clear thought was 'that isn’t good….' After that, everything went fuzzy."
Sustaining a traumatic brain injury, she experienced severe memory loss — one that made her wake up believing she was 17 years old. While she was recovering well physically, her memory loss was so bad she had even forgotten important events in her life. And that included her wedding that happened nine months prior and her husband, Brayden. She had no idea he even existed.
Two years ago, 23-year-old Laura Faganello suffered a traumatic brain injury after a pole fell on her head while she was at work. The injury left her with no memory of her wedding day or her husband, at all. https://t.co/rpObcCxX1Q
— CTV News Vancouver (@CTVVancouver) August 30, 2019
“Before the accident, I was one year away from graduating university. After the accident, I struggled to read, write, and speak coherent sentences, and my damaged short term memory caused me to forget everything I read within moments. I had to drop out of school. My pain levels were intense with absolutely no breaks for the first two years; I literally carried an airplane barf bag in my purse everywhere I went. The absolute worst part, though, was the memory loss. I would wake up and scream out of fear because I had no idea who my husband was. I would dread him coming home from work every day because then I would need to make small talk with him, just like you would with a stranger,” she explained in a Facebook post that has been since removed.
“I felt very trapped,” Laura told CTV News. "I felt my choice had been taken away from me." But as scary as it was for her, it was equally hard on her husband, Brayden Faganello. "It was heartbreaking, trying to go from giggling and having a great time together, to she has no idea who I am and she's scared when I say 'have a good day, I love you' — just that phrase," he recalled to the news outlet.
Attempting to remember the forgotten years was a tough process and it was taking a toll on Laura's relationship with her husband. “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, according to Inquirer.net.
But there was hope for the couple. Though none of her memories were returning, they decided to start afresh. “At the start of this journey, Brayden was quite rough around the edges. He was overwhelmed by having a wife that was so dependent on him, who didn’t even know who he was. There were many nights I cried myself to sleep. Eventually, he made a conscious choice to change that."
"He started being more gentle, loving, and selfless with me. He became my best friend as I started feeling like I could open up to him. We would go on endless drives, talking for hours. We binged The Office and Parks And Rec a million times. We could laugh for hours and not get tired of each other. I didn’t feel like I was in love with him, but I definitely liked him. So, I took off my rings, and I told him that I wanted to date him,” she said in her post.
“Brayden started leaving me cute notes on my bedside table every morning. I started asking him on fun dates. We would talk on the phone on his breaks, and do everything people who are newly dating would do. One day, I realized that I had started missing him every moment we weren’t together. Then, I found myself bringing him up to everyone I talked to like a teenage girl with a crush does, ” Laura continued.
And though it took her two years to recover from the accident, she didn't give up on making the most of it. In fact, she started falling in love again with Brayden. “I started to love him again. The process took a while, but it was so incredibly worth it," she gushed.
And so on August 19, 2019, when Brayden proposed to her again, she didn't hesitate to say yes. "We both knew that we should get married," he said to CTV News. "We can't explain it. We still can't. But that just penetrated into both of our hearts."
Now, on their fourth anniversary, the couple that fought every obstacle with their love will get married again.
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