Just one month after marrying Raleigh Hall, Tunicia Hall was taken to the hospital complaining of a horrible headache. Doctors discovered that she was suffering from a nearly fatal brain hemorrhage, what doctors describe as an “uncommon” type of stroke that affects otherwise healthy, middle-aged people. Even after she was given medial assistance, doctors believed she had only a 50/50 chance of surviving the ordeal.
Luckily, Tunicia Hall did survive, but she lost many of her memories. Among the memories lost was that of her June wedding to Raleigh, whom she had known for 30 years. Upon awakening, she looked at her new husband, and then asked, “Are we married?”
Raleigh said of the moment that he realized his beloved bride remembered so little, “I felt like I lost her.”
But Raleigh Hall was not about to sit back and watch the love of his life be lost to all their great memories together. Hall took action, and literally covered Tunicia’s hospital room with around 1,000 wedding photographs, hoping that something would trigger Tunicia’s memories.
Raleigh said, “I was fighting to get her back. Whatever came to mind, I tried.”
As for Tunicia, as she told CBS News , “The pictures were beautiful. They were nice to look at.”
But apparently the wedding photographs were more than just “nice to look at.” According to Raleigh, “The photos drew questions — when were we married? And she saw something, and I believe what she saw was hope.”
And after a few weeks, Tunicia’s memory slowly began to return.
Her doctor, Dr. Richard Temis, was nothing more than amazed by the progress. He acknowledged openly that medical science and care are not always enough to bring a patient back, saying, “This is a great example that patients’ families are key to recovery.”
The couple spent their three-month anniversary as husband and wife at the North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, just a few floors down from the intensive care unit where Tunicia had originally been treated… and where her loving husband had remained at her bedside and decorated the room with their wedding photos. The North Shore University hospital staff surprised the devoted married couple with a cake, and then offered up a toast “to life.”
Tunicia Hall said the process of recovering her memory had been slow and gradual, but she now feels “great” and is, fortunately, in no pain.
As for her husband Raleigh Hall’s thoughts on Tunicia’s recovery, he summed it up simply. “It happens,” said Hall. “When you see hope, it happens.”
[Image via New York Daily News ]
