He forgets his wife every few minutes but never once stops loving her

A 1985 brain infection destroyed Clive Wearing's hippocampus, leaving him unable to hold a new memory for more than about 30 seconds; he describes each moment as his first waking one. He can still sit down and play piano or conduct a choir fluently, and he greets his wife Deborah with overwhelmed joy every time she re-enters the room, even seconds after she left. Procedural skill and emotional attachment survived when explicit memory did not.

— Deborah Wearing, Forever Today: A Memoir of Love and Amnesia — Doubleday, 2005
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