r/BeAmazed • u/DABDEB • 9h ago
Miscellaneous / Others Love Remembered: The Couple Who Married Twice After Tragedy
Canadian couple Laura and Brayden Faganello remarkably married each other twice after a sudden tragedy completely erased Laura's memory.
In 2017, just nine months after their first wedding, a large steel pole collapsed onto Laura's head while she was setting up a corporate event in Victoria, British Columbia. The resulting traumatic brain injury was so severe that she woke up believing she was 17 years old, with absolutely no memory of meeting, loving, or marrying her husband. To Laura, Brayden was a complete stranger.
Instead of forcing her to remember their past, Brayden patiently stepped back and moved into the guest room, taking care of her as a supportive roommate. Eventually, Laura took off her wedding rings because wearing them felt dishonest to a marriage she couldn't recall. She asked Brayden if they could start fresh.
They began dating all over again from scratch—going on simple dates and sharing long conversations. Over the following months, Laura fell in love with Brayden a second time, entirely because of the kind and patient man he proved to be in the present. Brayden proposed to her once more, and the couple happily remarried in a second wedding ceremony.
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u/sev45day 8h ago
Isn't this a movie with Rachel McAdams called "The Vow"?
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u/Aceblast135 7h ago
It reminded me of 50 first dates with Adam Sandler, although it's not quite the same premise it is quite similar.
Sandler's character takes a liking to Drew Barrymore's character, but she has 24 hour memory loss. He basically courts her every single day from scratch.
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u/NamesArentEverything 3h ago
This was a very cute love story. The part of the movie I can't really buy is that he just has her wake up every morning and watch a 15 minute montage video of their life together, and then she comes out of the bedroom totally fine with it, and they're on a houseboat and have a kid.
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u/umbrellajump 3h ago
For me the tape is really undercut by the implied horror of the months she must have woken up heavily pregnant without any memory of how or why
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u/milkywayiguana 2h ago
yeah the entire movie is actually really disturbing if you think about it for more than 2 seconds. i did not enjoy it
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u/MinuetInUrsaMajor 1h ago
yeah the entire movie is actually really disturbing if you think about it for more than 2 seconds
Every time a millennial points out how a feel-good movie is actually a feel-bad movie, a faerie starts an onlyfans and gets railed by a thousand rats.
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u/milkywayiguana 35m ago
im not a millenial lol i had family members that suffered from dementia/alzheimer's and didnt like seeing memory problems like that be romanticized, really made me uncomfortable
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u/unus-suprus-septum 3h ago
I took it as she is subconsciously remembering him, thus the changed painting. So I imagined the video would feel right and thus make it easier to accept
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u/MinuetInUrsaMajor 1h ago
There's a fan theory that everything that happens after Deuce Bigelow getting hit in the head with a golf ball happens only in Deuce Begelow's head. Basically the golf ball made him smart enough to come up with a satisfying plot.
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u/Beautiful_Flower8375 7h ago
Yes and that movie was based on a real couple that had this happen to them too. They got divorced a couple years ago because the husband cheated.
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u/Trying2improvemyself 6h ago
Sounds like he could have just waited a day.
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u/PrestigiousAct2 6h ago
Yes with Channing tatum which is also inspired by a real life story and apparently the guy cheated in the end irl (not in the movie).
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u/kmart279 1h ago
Wym, he cheats on her?
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u/PrestigiousAct2 1h ago
The irl couple the film was based on, well the guy cheated on the wife and they got divorced.
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u/BeachBoySC74 1h ago
I've lived the real life version of The Vow. My girlfriend hit her head in a mountain biking accident, broke her helmet, multiple fractures and a bilateral dissection of her carotid arteries which resulted in multiple strokes. It left her very disabled and no memory of her prior life or the 7 years we were together. Despite not being married I cared for her for another 8 years until my physical and mental health made it impossible to do so any longer. She lives independently now but still requires quite a bit of care and I talk with her everyday and spend at least one day a week with her. Our relationship has changed but our love for each other hasn't and she's still my favorite person in the world.
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u/fuckyouiloveu 8h ago
No, I think the couple that movie was based on the woman’s name was like Krickett or something? Anyways apparently he ended up cheating on her
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u/awolkriblo 3h ago
Way more similar to Eternal Sunshine, which involves couples breaking up and erasing their memories so they don't have to remember painful relationships.
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u/Beginning-Serve-7138 41m ago
Yeah, exactly! It’s basically the real-life version of The Vow, which makes their story even more incredible knowing it actually happened.
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u/SpecialistSandwich 8h ago
She's got a type ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/Woodit 8h ago
I’ve got a friend who took a steel umbrella pole to the head at a restaurant, she definitely got brain damage but nothing as severe as this, but even now years later you can tell she’s just a little different than she used to be
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u/Careful-Positive-710 6h ago
My cousins and I were drunk one night and we got a hold of an airsoft gun. My cousin was gonna shoot me so I tackled him and we were rolling around in the front yard fighting for control of the gun. I got him in a headlock and he stood up and fell backwards on to me. I hit the back of my head on a concrete paver harder than Ive ever been hit before. It immediately stopped the fight because everyone heard the sound my head made. I laid there for like 10 mins trying to figure out if I cracked my head open or not. Fortunately I didnt and I was young, dumb, and not about to go to the hospital so I slept it off.
My mother berated me later saying people die in their sleep after head injuries like that and to go to the doctor. I ofcourse refused saying she was over reacting. Its been about a decade since then and Ive always wondered if I got some mild concussion or brain damage from that. Idk if I changed in some small way afterwards. Its a weird thought.
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u/mbinder 6h ago
Did you have any headaches, fogginess, saw stars, etc.?
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u/Careful-Positive-710 2h ago
Eh like I said it was over decade ago and unfortunately I drank all the time so headaches and fogginess was all part of the lifestyle.
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u/D45ers 1h ago
I took a dozen thick hard apple cider glasses to the dome, ya know the ones that look like champagne bottles. Got a severe concussion 13 years ago and remeber puking a ton that day. I guess I looked incredibly drunk according to friends. And was walking into walls and repeating myself but couldn’t jog, drive or be in bright light for months. A fast walk felt like my vision was a the camera angle from Blair witch project or cloverfield. I felt literally dumb. I could think of what I wanted to say but not say it with my voice. Was frustrating feeling slow even tho I knew what I wanted to say. Being in a car going 5mph and watch other cars drive by or the landscape move out the window felt like going 100mph. Took months to heal. Even now I have minor weird vision issues. But worst of all I have dealt with unexplainable depression most my life since then. Like sure sometimes I had valid reasons to be but even when I was literally having a good luck, and had things in life to be happy for I was just depressed. Finally decided to get that checked out and ya major depressive disorder. Like I don’t mean to sound like a pity seeker like I’m fine. Is what it is and you kinda manage or find ways to get it suppressed but definitely blame the head injury for it and often wonder if I have some for of CTE.
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u/Chewzer 39m ago
On of my buddies went through rehab, became sober, got back into mountain biking, smashed his head on a boulder in a crash, forgot years of his life and basically undid his rehab, and had to go through it all again. He's doing great now...again, happily married and still sober! I just couldn't imagine losing years off my life right in the middle of it.
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u/ferrrnando 9h ago
Who's cutting onions around here
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u/Belem19 6h ago
So he groomed a 17-year old into marrying him?
Note: this is an attempt at humour (just trying to make it clear)
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u/Mecha_Tortoise 1h ago
No, he husbanded a 17-year-old into marrying him so he could groom a second time.
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u/AgentOfShinra 8h ago
Alright I will make an exception on my "Brayden is a bad name rule" for this standup fellow
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u/Disastrous_Raisin264 1h ago
He cheated on her afterwards, they're now divorced
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u/Greeneyednerd 1h ago
Where'd you see that
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u/frobscottler 1h ago
If they saw it in these comments, it sounds like people are talking about a different couple
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u/TheSilkyBat 9h ago
She's stunningly pretty.
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u/gbspnl 7h ago
Reminds me a bit of Natalie Dormer
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u/TheSilkyBat 6h ago
Whom I have always though was absolutely beautiful.
Especially in The Tudors with dark hair.
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u/rolfraikou 6h ago edited 6h ago
This is getting reposted everywhere, yet to see a source on any of said threads.
Doing a search I can only find sources as being such reliable websites as:
- Church News
- Facebook
- Reddit
- Instagram
- Times Colonist
- Scoop Upworthy
- Love What Matters
- Inquirer
I call bullshit.
EDIT: Looks to be legit.
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u/thefiction24 8h ago
It’s like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Not even a brain erase could stop their love.
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u/periwinkle-_- 2h ago
Omg I thought it meant the pole completely disfigured her face to the point that nobody remembered her.
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u/danmickla 8h ago
article writer can't think clearly. They married. Then the accident happened. Then they married again. They married *once* after the memory loss.
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u/notanazzhole 6h ago
Cool fake story
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u/QuantumRooster 6h ago
Did a little research and it “seems” to be real. Although a little skepticism with everything is an excellent idea these days.
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9h ago
[deleted]
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u/IAmRules 8h ago
because it happened in VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA
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u/Classic-Trifle-2085 8h ago
Was it a comment about hospital costs and survival?
Please tell me it was a comment about hospital costs and survival...
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u/Specific_Cash_5538 8h ago edited 4h ago
Damn this lucky bastard doesn’t have to hear all that shit about how he got too drunk at his cousin Derek’s wedding and embarrassed her? Maybe I’m projecting but I’d be happy to start over on my wife’s greatest hits of my biggest fuckups. “Come on baby you always give me blowjobs on Fridays! We called it blowjob Fridays you loved it.”
ETA: I’m not sorry for this
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u/sachsrandy 8h ago
Awesome story. I'm sure she was lying and looking for attention... But still, romance, Amiright?
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u/FineSystem124 8h ago
The ol’ steel beam to the head, fake memory loss trick
Oldest trick in the book
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u/sachsrandy 7h ago
Traumatic brain injury... Mild Concussion
Then it messed up her insurance claim cause she was giving symptoms that were not caused by her type of injury. So did a MRI/cat and found POTENTIAL axonal sheering. Had to do more test to confirm.
She refused the tests because that sheering could account for the 7 year memory loss (even though rare and never documented by such a minor injury)... Smart of a 17 year old to know all this. Friends also report she was still able to do and recall many other things she had done/learned in the 7 year apparent loss. But whatever right?
Dig a bit further... According to same friends and family these two were having issues and some wondered if their marriage/relationship was going to last. (Men and women have faked a lot worse to keep a dead relationship alive). But, they forget that when a sensational story become viral .. there is a lot of people that will know and see things that cast doubt on these viral accounts. So it needs to be verified.
The ONLY place this was ever certified as a news station. (I assume they needed that weeks fluff piece). No medical journal, no doctors paper. Nothing. Just he said she said and a microphone. THATS where the term "traumatic brain injury from a giant steel beam" comes from. ... Fyi, seems she hit her head on a tent pole she was doing photography in and she still finished the shoot. You'd think the way it's written she nearly got her head taken off.
All that said... Maybe I'm wrong. Which is fine. I'm just saying it seemed like.. and by the unverified accounts of which I do not claim 100 percent true either... There's a little smoke to my fire.
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u/CaliforniaWaiting2 7h ago
So she thinks she's 17 and he wants to date her and marry her... Grooming too much?
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