After a 1985 herpes encephalitis infection destroyed his hippocampi, musician Clive Wearing was left unable to form new memories, experiencing each moment as his first conscious instant and repeatedly declaring he had just woken up. He kept a diary in which he crossed out each prior entry and wrote that he was now, for the first time, truly awake and alive.
Though Clive could retain no facts, names, or events for more than seconds, he reliably recognised his wife and greeted her with overwhelming joy each time as if after long absence. The bond and the emotional response persisted even though he could not recall when he had last seen her or anything they had done together.
Clive could still sight-read, conduct a choir, and play the piano fluently despite being unable to remember having done so moments later, showing that musical and motor skill is stored separately from the memory of experiences. The performance would end and he would have no recollection of having performed.
A spouse of someone with profound amnesia faces a loss that never resolves: the partner is physically alive and loving yet gone as a continuous companion, so the grief cannot complete and recurs with each encounter. Caring becomes a daily negotiation between the man present and the shared life that no longer accumulates.