Creepypastas

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Has anyone ever heard of Clive Wearing?

Chances are you probably haven't. Though, if you ever took Psychology chances are you've at least heard of his...condition.

Clive Wearing was born on May 11th, 1938. He had a normal childhood, and was a gifted musician. He sang in the chorus at Westminister Cathedral. He preformed at the Covet Garden, and with the London Sinfonietta Chorus. In 1968 Clive founded the Europa Singers of London, a small choir specializing in classical music. That went places. Eventually he found his way into the BBC, where he even managed to control the music for the royal wedding of Charles and Diana, the highest point of his career. Clive had a good life, but that all changed in 1985.

Clive was diagnosed with Herpesviral encephalitis, a herpes simplex that targeted his central nervous system. Since then, he has been totally changed.

The virus went after his amygdala first, destroying it before moving on to the hippocampus. He's forever trapped in a void. He can't emote, he can barely speak legibly, he can't even remember things. You see, Clive was stricken by what is known as anterograde and retrograde amnesia. Clive can't form new memories, and can barely remember old ones. That's not even the worse part. Clive's memory span was reduced to a striking average 30 seconds. Sometimes it's less than 10, and he can never understand what's happening. Every time he sees his wife, he jumps up, cries, cheers like a child, because he cannot remember anything about her during the past 20 years. They'll be talking when he "resets" and he'll be totally lost. He'll look a little over to the left and repeat the same process.

What's more heartbreaking is his diary.

Every time he awakens, his brain is confused. It searches for a solution, or an explanation. He thinks he's been in a two-decade coma. Every time he goes into his diary, he writes something like "Awake, first time. Twenty years." The problem is, each time he does it, he sees all the times he has ever written it. What's his solution? He crosses them out, saying "It's real this time."

If you were to peak into this man's diary, you'd see this:

1:15PM - Awake. First time.
1:15PM - Awake for the first time. Real this time.
1:16PM - Really awake. How long have I been gone?
1:16PM - I am really, completely awake.
1:17PM - Now I am superlatively, actually awake.

It's just the same over and over again, but as he went on, it became frantic. He panicked, broke down.

8:45 - AWAKE. FIRST TIME. IT HAS TO BE REAL NOW
8:45 - AWAKE. COMA. WHERE IS EVERYONE. WHO IS WRITING THIS.
8:45 - HELP. HELP. HELP. WHAT'S HAPPENING.
8:46 - HELP ME. I'M SCARED.

And it still goes on. Today, Clive is still alive, as is his wife, children, and aids. He lives in a psychiatric hospital, still thinking he's waking up from the coma he's never had.

Once upon a time, there was a man named Henry Molaison. Henry was born in 1926 in Hartford, Connecticut. Henry suffered from serious epilepsy. They were so severe he couldn't function, he couldn't learn, or go to work. However, at age 21, he was finally given a saving grace. You see, at the time, there was an experimental form of brain surgery that was shown to severely decrease the number of seizures in epileptics. With no other choice, Henry took the chance.

The surgery was a success. However, it came at a hefty price. The surgery removed parts of Henry's hippocampus and some of his amygdala. Henry was diagnosed with anterograde amnesia.

However, compared to Wearing, Henry lived a happy life. His condition only left him with a five minute memory span, and he luckily remembered everything that happened to him before surgery. He remembered his name, his wife, his loves and hobbies, and Henry wasn't changed that much. Henry still had hope. Henry could remember things, he could even learn, all it took was practice in memory anchoring. Henry died at the ripe age of 86. He had been doing what he loved to do, puzzles and spending time with those he held dear. Henry Molaison died surrounded by loved ones, and his brain would give science a hearty contribution. In the end, Henry left the world not caring about his affliction. When he died, he was just thinking about how grateful he was to even be able to remember such things. Henry died peacefully. They say when his life flashed before his eyes, somehow he managed to see all that he missed.

And Henry was happy.