The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Remember this
Young mother pieces together a past slowly being erased by seizure disorder.
orks didn’t pop from champagne bottles the night before. No plastic banners welcomed the dawn of a new year. No trash cans groaned under the weight of paper plates from party guests departed. All the lights in the Greensboro home had been turned off long before midnight.
It was the morning of New Year’s Day 2014, but for the Brown family it was just another day. Until it wasn’t.
Blair Brown was making coffee in the kitchen of her Greensboro home. Then the 31-year-old brunette stopped. She did a double-take over her shoulder, as if she’d seen a bird fly by. She spun in a circle once, twice, maybe three times, a blind pirouette as her eyes glazed over and the world turned black. She crumpled to the floor, bashing her head against the cold granite counter, her skull bursting into a bloody mess.
The sound of the crash echoed through the quiet house. Her husband, Jim, rushed to catch her but was too late. He held a shirt to the blood spouting from his wife’s head, her mouth, her nose. He shouted for help, telling their 5-year-old son Benjamin to call 911. Before the sirens came, Jim tried to comfort the boy while Blair lay writhing in his arms.
Look, there are going to be fire trucks and ambulances and they’re going to come here, but they’re here to help. So don’t be scared.
After three violent, full body grand mal seizures and multiple hospital stays in Greensboro and Athens, Blair’s body finally finished ravaging itself.
Her recovery was just beginning, but her mind was erasing itself. With each convulsion, she lost another memory. And with each memory gone, she lost a little bit of herself.
Chasing history
Morning light filters through the multicolored curtains in the kitchen window. Huddled on the couch, Blair, now 32, flips through a red photo album titled “Destinations.” She goes here to remember what she’s forgotten, or at least to try.
“All I go by is pictures,” Blair says, as she leafs through the thin plastic slips.
Blair was diagnosed with epilepsy her freshman year at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. After staying up all night while packing Watch Blair Brown discuss the toll of her illness in a special video presentation at myAJC.com/personaljourneys.