Sonya Lea and her husband Richard Bandy had a 23-year marriage filled with ups, downs and memories. In 2000 Bandy developed a rare form of appendix cancer and had an operation which was successful — sort of.

Bandy lived, but he was almost a different man. He had suffered a post-surgical complication called "anoxic insult" that cut oxygen to his brain and cleared much of his memory. He called his wife "Sweetness," but could not remember how they met, when they got married and the births of their two children. Twenty-three years more or less vanished from his mind.

"I very much live in the now now," Bandy tells NPR's Scott Simon. "I mean, I have no real recollection of how I used to be and no real interest in trying to preserve it or trying to go back there."

Lea, whose essays and interviews have appeared in Salon, The Southern Review and other publications, has written a book about their journey forward together. It's called Wondering Who You Are.

Story here: http://www.npr.org/series/100876926/n...