Even if you didn't grow up dreaming of having a love story like one that exists in the movies, you likely haven't escaped their proliferation. The typical rom-com plays out when a boy meets a girl, the two fall in love, are forced apart by some circumstance or other, and then fall back together and live happily ever after.
Jessica Sharman and Richard Bishop may not have had that typical how-we-met story, but their story does closely resemble that of a rom-com near and dear to many of our hearts. Their story, submitted to The Way We Met's Instagram page, did begin with a boy meeting a girl — but the girl in this case suffered from severe epileptic seizures that wiped her memory, and the boy had to try to make her fall in love with him all over again.
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Their story, of course, is drawing a lot of apt comparisons in the comments section to the 2004 classic, 50 First Dates, as well as 2012's The Vow.
According to the Instagram post, the couple had been dating for seven months when Sharman suffered an epileptic seizure while they were both commuting into London together for work.
"I remember boarding the train that day in March, but that’s it," Sharman told the New York Post about the incident back in February. "I’ve been told my body went limp and my eyes glazed over. But we had nearly arrived in London and Rich was able to support me until we got to the station, then walk me to our office and call my parents while he looked after me."
When she woke up, however, she had lost her memory.
"Not only did I not recognize my parents in the pictures, I had no idea what I looked like," she told New York Post.
Memory loss, according to the Epilepsy Society of the UK, can happen after epileptic seizures, though most of the time, people lose memories over a period of time with smaller seizures.
After she was discharged from the hospital, Sharman had a difficult time feeling comfortable in Bishop's presence, telling New York Post, "I didn’t know him but he was acting like we were in love."
She even broke up with him — a man's persistence in real life isn't always as cute as it is in the movies — but said that "seeing how passionate and caring he was finally convinced me he must care for me, so I agreed to give it a shot."
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It seems that shot was worth it, because she fell in love with her boyfriend all over again and now has a new set of memories with him.
"I don’t remember the first time I fell in love with Rich but I do remember the second," Sharman told New York Post.
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