Twenty years after burying my wife, she literally saved me from a stroke

My wife's crashed car was found at the edge of a forest, but there was no trace of Taylor. That broke me. Time passed, and despite all efforts by the police and volunteers, no one could find her. The only theory was that wild animals might have taken her, as the car wasn't discovered until the second day. Her mom insisted on organizing a funeral to find closure, and we reluctantly did it. But a few days ago, I went out for coffee when I suddenly felt something was wrong. I could barely move my right side and collapsed, spilling my coffee. As I lay there, someone grabbed my shoulders and began asking me to pronounce a word and lift my hand…

My wife, Taylor, was involved in a severe car accident. However, when the police contacted me and I arrived at the scene, she was nowhere to be found.

Authorities began an extensive search that involved helicopters, but there was no trace of Taylor. The car was there, all of her documents were there, but she wasn’t. The blood stains showed that she moved towards the woods, which made authorities assume she was attacked by wild animals.

Weeks turned into months and her mother forced me to organize a funeral for my wife. I was reluctant, but I finally agreed. As we laid an empty coffin in the ground, I believed I would get the closure I needed badly, but that didn’t happen.

I missed my wife every second of every day. She was my world, and now she was no longer part of my life.

I would spend my days wandering around, hoping to see a familiar face but to no avail. Then one day, as I was having my morning coffee at the local coffee shop, I suddenly felt my arm going numb. The next thing I remember was collapsing on the ground and hearing a voice that I recognized asking me, “What color is the sky?”

When I woke up, I was at the hospital, calling Taylor’s name over and over again. And yes, she was there, looking at me with an odd expression on her face. “Are you my husband?” she asked.

“Yes, Taylor, it’s me, Matthew, your husband,” I said as I reached for her hand, but she pulled it away from me.

Confused, she said she started having flashes about her life. She remembered my face, but she wasn’t sure if we were married.

In the days to come, she explained everything to me. She told me how a man named Alister found her and convinced her that the two were married. They lived in a secluded place, surrounded by few houses only and took care of a bunch of animals. She accepted that life as her own, but it was recently that she started remembering things.

When she saw me at the coffee shop that day, I looked familiar, and when I collapsed, she rushed to help me.

I told her about our life together and how I never loved anyone else. I never lost hope of finding her one day. The albums of our wedding day helped her remember even more.

But my wife wasn’t ready to be with me right away. She needed time to think about everything that had happened to her during the last 20 years.

We started slow. Coffee and lunch here and there, long conversations, and stolen glances that said more than words.

Eventually, we got back together and started our life all over. As of the man who lied to her, he was taken into custody. However, after he shared how his own wife died three years prior Taylor’s accident and he believed he was helping Taylor, she forgave him.