Excerpt from 'Roller Coaster Ride With Brain Injury (For Loved Ones)'

Chapter III

"Look who's here. Do you know who this is, Larry?"

Looking at me he answered, "Steve."

"He's just joking," I laughed. I soon realized, however, that none of his answers were making any sense. It wasn't long before I became aware, with a sick feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach, that he hadn't been joking and didn't seem to know who I was.

Later in the visit he began to look at me very strangely.

"Do you know what my name is?" I asked him.

With a puzzled look on his face he said, "It isn't what you want it to be."

"What do you think I want it to be?"

"Coffee and toast," he answered."

Later - "Quickly finding a nurse I tearfully said, "He doesn't seem to remember anything from before his accident. Is he going to get his memory back?"

"We have been asking him dates and he has no idea what month it is or even what year. He thinks it's 1996."

"How would he know me? I thought. "We didn't know each other in 1996."