Laura and Brayden Faganello were married three years ago but looking at photos and watching videos of that day are difficult.
“There is a lot of pain there,” said 23-year-old Laura Faganello.
That’s because when Laura sees the young woman in love it’s like she’s watching a stranger.
“I’ve actually only watched the wedding video once since the concussion because I cried through it,” she said.
In April 2017 Laura was setting up for an event in Langford when a pole fell and hit her.
“I remember the sound that it made as it came down on my head, I’ve honestly had nightmares of that sound ever since,” she said.
Almost instantly she says she started to lose her memory. Just a couple weeks after she woke up to a stranger in her bed.
“I went to scream and he said good morning, you know so normal, and I had no idea who he was,” Faganello said.
In an instant gone were the days of laughter, and love, and adventure and in their place were darkness and confusion.
“I felt very trapped, I felt like my choice had been taken away from me,” she said.
“She’s scared when I say have a good day I love you, that scares her just that phrase, because she doesn’t have any emotional attachment,” said Brayden Faganello.
As Laura struggled with depression and a feeling of loss, Brayden, 25, would write her little notes each day trying to support her and bring her back to him.
“I was committed to her, I loved her and that hadn’t changed,” he said.
Then in January, after more than a year of struggling, the light started to creep back in
“One day I woke up crying again, and I wiped my tears away and said this is the last day I’ll be a victim,” said an emotional Laura.
After saying “I do” before family and friends three years earlier, the couple, who own a wedding photography business themselves, were ready to start over.
“So I asked him out on a date and we went mini golfing, and by the third hole we were flirting,” Laura giggles.
Eight months later there was a second proposal and Laura said yes, again. They plan to re-marry in July 2020, which happens to be the fourth anniversary of their first wedding.
April Lawrence
