Husband Left with Amnesia After Deadly Attack Learns to Fall in Love with Wife All Over Again
An Arizona couple had to fall in love all over again just one year after they were wed when the husband woke one morning not remembering he was married or even where he was.
In June of 2011, Adam Gonzales was an AT&T executive working in Texas when he was attacked and so badly wounded that he coded and revived three times, before ultimately falling into a coma for four months, The Arizona Republic reported.
Adam, now 42, suffered such trauma to the brain that when he finally awoke from his coma, he had to relearn to walk and talk and other basic skills.
After months of rehabilitation, Adam had recovered and decided he needed a fresh start, so he moved to the Phoenix area.
There in December of 2012, he met Raquel, 36. The two hit it off right away. In fact, they were so engrossed in getting to know each on their first date that it lasted six hours. The couple described it as “the best date ever!”
Adam shared the story of his tragedy and his recovery, and Raquel was amazed.
“I was floored. This man is a miracle,“ she said. “I was thinking this could be the man to lead my family, this is a man that I could give my heart. I called it from Day One.”
A courtship ensued and the two married in July 2015.
But a little over a year later, in September 2016, Adam woke up completely disoriented.
“I see the lights on in the living room. Adam was in his boxers looking super confused. He was looking at his phone and didn’t know what was going on,” Raquel recalled. “I asked, ‘Do you know who I am?’ He said, ‘No.’ ”
“I was very alone. My mind was back in 2011” Adam told The Republic.
“My whole world stopped and my heart sank,” his wife said.
He went through a battery of tests over the next five days with the doctors finally concluding he had suffered a seizure stemming from his 2011 attack.
“I’m in a hospital having to believe I’m married, I’m living in Arizona and have this life I do not remember at all,” he said.
What followed over the next months would test both their faith in God and love for each other.
Adam told Raquel perhaps it would be best if they got a divorce since he no longer remembered being her husband and could no longer recall why he loved her.
The two were attending a blended family small group at their church in Chandler, near Phoenix, when he experienced his amnesia.
Raquel reached out to the group’s leader Andrea Parrish, for support and counsel.
“This is the time you’re going to have to love him for the both of you,” Parrish told her. “You’re going to have to show him that you love him. You’re going to have to give him the grace that God has given you in your whole life.”
“You have to fight for your marriage,” the leader exhorted.
Slowly Adam learned why he had loved his wife in the first place.
“My wife, God bless her, she had me fall in love with her. She did things to help me fall in love and get to know her all over again,” he recounted. “That was encouraging that she was standing by me through all of this.”
“He remembered that he wanted to be with me,” Raquel said.
Adam expressed gratitude for how patient members of his church small group were with him, reintroducing themselves and just being there for him during the trial.
“I thank God for those friends that he put in my life to help me through that journey,” he said. “I thank God for my wife that never gave up on me even when I wanted to give up on the union of marriage.”
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