Finding Fiona

PREFACE:

Have you ever stopped and looked at your image in the mirror and thought who am I? Or have you ever been doing something, either good or bad, and stopped dead and thought who am I and what am I doing? Or have you ever looked at someone, someone you know, and thought who are you?

For those of you who answered in the affirmative and truly believe you've had one of those moments I ask you a further question: have you ever known what it's like to wake up one day and simply not know who you are, who anyone is, or what has happened thus far in your life?

It's a pretty scary concept yet it happens often. Amnesia is a term regularly on our lips. It happens in television shows, movies, books and the news. The concept has been somewhat demystified in recent decades, the result of which being the average person can usually name at least one possible cause of amnesia- usually some kind of trauma where the victim really doesn't want to remember what happened and essentially their mind draws a curtain over the bad events to protect the victim.

Knowing what amnesia is and what can cause it, however, is little help when you wake up and don't know your name, what you look like, if you are married or single, a parent or not, whether you've got a big family or no family at all, what has happened in your life up until that point- or what happened up until a certain point but the rest is a blank canvas- what you do, whether you're a good person or not so good, whether you're happy in your own company or are a social animal, whether you are sporty or whether you're happy to sit back and read or you prefer to go out to a pub or club and party.

And that is the fate that befalls me…