Sunday 6 July 2014

I Forgot to Remember: A Memoir of Amnesia by Su Meck

What’s it like to have your sense of self and all your memories gone in one fell swoop? Su was 22 years old when a traumatic head injury left her unable to remember even her own children. This is her memoir of having to learn almost everything from scratch, including how to act as an adult in a world she had no memory of ever experiencing before.

Su’s accident had left her in a dependent state upon a husband she had no knowledge of or affection for, with the responsibility of caring for two small children. The extent of her amnesia was unrecognised by both the medical community and even her own family.

Her account is both candid and alarming. With repeated episodes of becoming almost comatose over those early years, Su believes that it is incredibly lucky that both she and her children survived. Su often had no understanding or meaning for many of the activities she was expected to perform in her life and could only pretend to act like other adults. Dependent and naïve, the brain injury took a terrible toll on her marriage.

This is Su’s account of an incredible journey of self-development. Using the smallest clues, like her old record collection, she slowly began to get a sense of what she used to be like before the accident. But still, for her, the old Su is an unknown person, one she is only acquainted with through the memories of family and friends. Heart-breaking yet inspiring, Su’s story illustrates the important role of our own past and how it shapes the fabric of our present.

Reviewed by Spot

Catalogue Link: I Forgot to Remember

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