Love is wonderful the second time around, but it can be all the more special if you don’t remember the first time. For Peter Marshall, who suffers from early-onset Alzheimer’s, forgetting his past has meant a bittersweet chance to fall in love with his wife Lisa and ask her to marry him all over again.
Peter and Lisa have been married for 12 years. At 56, his illness has progressed rapidly, but no matter what turn his condition takes, Lisa remains steadfastly by his side because even if he can’t remember her name, he knows that he loves her and that she loves him.
“He doesn’t know that I’m his wife. I’m just his favorite person,” Lisa told NBC News 4 New York’s Ida Siegal. “I don’t need to have a label. I don’t need a name because our hearts are connected.”
Last winter, as the Connecticut couple sat on the couch watching a televised wedding, Peter had an inspiration. Not realizing they were already married, he proposed—and a surprised Lisa happily accepted.
And so a date was set. Vendors who knew Lisa’s event planner daughter donated their services to make the day perfect. Throughout the touching ceremony Peter beamed at his bride, while sometimes through tears, Lisa smiled back as she made her vows.
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“It was so perfect. I couldn’t have dreamt for a better day. It was so magical,” Lisa told NBC. “I can’t remember seeing him so happy for so long… I’m the luckiest girl in the world. I [got] to do it twice.”
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Though the ceremony took place only a few months ago, Peter has no recollection of the event, but what he’s not forgotten is the woman who’s never going to leave him; the women he loves who loves him back—and when hearts are truly connected, sometimes remembering love can be more than enough.
(WATCH the NBC video about this story below.)
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