Any die-hard romantic movie buffs out there have probably seen the 2012 tearjerker flick, The Vow . You all know the one — Rachel McAdams is married to Channing Tatum, and a devastating car crash leaves her with no memory of her life or her marriage, so Tatum struggles to keep their love alive even though his wife literally has no idea who he is.
It’s a sad film, for sure. But as the credits roll and you wipe at your tear-soaked face, you can at least feel slightly better knowing it’s only a movie.
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For one young married couple, however, it’s not just a movie; it’s their life.
Back in 2015 , Laura Faganello met the love of her life, Brayden. The pair were introduced by mutual friends who thought they would make a cute couple, and began as pen pals, writing each other letters while Brayden served a church mission in South Africa.
After eight months, the pair got to meet face to face for the first time in their home province of British Columbia and immediately became inseparable.
Brayden proposed shortly after, and the two were married on a beautiful July day the same year they first met.
But their honeymoon was tragically cut short just a few months later. While Laura helped set up for an event, a giant pole came crashing down onto her head.
“I can still remember how it felt,” she recalls. “My first thought was, ‘Well…that isn’t good.’ I had no idea then how monumental that moment would be in my life.”
It wasn’t until Laura awoke a short time later that the true extent of her injuries were realized.
“My next clear memory is of waking up thinking I was 17 years old, and not knowing who Brayden was,” she explains. “My memory of meeting, falling in love with, and marrying Brayden was gone. I remember waking up and seeing Brayden. A rush of panic took over my body, I couldn’t say a single word. ‘Who are you?!,’ I wanted to scream.”
Before the accident, Laura was preparing to finish her final year of university, but after it she couldn’t even remember how to read or write.
It was two years of long, excruciating recovery for her. She had none of her memories past the age of seventeen, and the accident had left her with severe spine damage. However, the worst part, Laura explained in a Facebook post , was “coming to terms with the fact I’m married to someone I don’t know.”
“I desperately hoped my memory would come back, that some day I would look at Brayden and remember everything,” she shared. “Unfortunately that has yet to happen.”
Eventually, Laura said she realized she had to make a choice, and took off her wedding rings.
“It’s really hard to feel completely devoted to a marriage when you feel like you just woke up to it one day,” she said, adding that she knew Brayden was a “quirky, silly” person who stayed devoted by her side throughout her recovery.
“I wanted to try to make it work,” she said. “So, we started dating again.”
Laura was given the incredible opportunity to fall in love with her husband all over again.
“He became my best friend, and then my crush, and then my love,” she said.
Unfortunately, she still hasn’t regained any of her old memories or old feelings, but now she has new ones, and has learned that Brayden has and always will be the love of her life, no matter what.
On August 19, Brayden got down on one knee for the second time and proposed to his wife.
Laura happily shared the news of their engagement on Facebook: “I’m so grateful for our new beginning and for the happy future we have ahead of us.”
The post has since gone viral, amassing over 35,000 shares and more than 120,000 reactions from I imagine mostly teary-eyed users.
“No words but this is a must read,” one person wrote. “It gave me chills… just amazing and wonderful. Thanks for sharing something so private and difficult. All the best for you.”
