A Louisiana grandma who woke up five years ago thinking she was still a teenager in the 1980s said she’s making the most of this Christmas because she lost so many due to her mysterious memory loss.
‘I’ve lost a lot of Christmases, so it’s a big deal,’ Kim Denicola, 60, said about this holiday season.
Five years ago, Denicola was leaving her weekly bible study group in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last October when her vision suddenly became blurry.
After losing consciousness, Denicola woke in hospital, unable to recall the four decades beyond her last day of secondary school.
Mrs Denicola began to feel unwell shortly after leaving the Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church.
A Louisiana grandma who woke up five years ago thinking she was still a teenager in the 1980s said she’s making the most of this Christmas because she lost so many due to her mysterious memory loss
‘I’ve lost a lot of Christmases, so it’s a big deal,’ Kim Denicola, 60, said about this holiday season.
Kim Harris Denicola (pictured) cannot remember the past 30 years of her life after she blacked out in a church car park, only to wake thinking it was 1980 and she was just 18
When she woke in hospital, Denicola did not even recognize her husband of 14 years David Denicola who is pictured right with his wife and her stepson Matthew
‘I called my husband and told him I had a really bad headache, one of those excruciating, don’t-know-what-to-do headaches,’ she said.
‘He told me not to drive and to ask one of the ladies to take me to the hospital.
‘Apparently I went up to my bible study friend and said: “Is there any possible way you can take me to hospital?” and she did.’
Despite extensive tests and scans, five years later doctors still can’t explain what happened but they told her that unfortunately if her memories haven’t come back at this point they likely never will.
She is now re-discovering things she loves, including the simple things many take for granted.
The Baton Rouge native opened up to WAFB 9 about how excited she was to fill the Christmas gift baskets for her family members and explore all the treats and presents that she forgot about after her memory loss.
She is also getting to know her family all over again – including her husband and kids and four grandchildren.
As well as re-discovering things she loved – Denicola is also fascinated by new modern technology, such as the Alexa in her house that she is baffled by.
Denicola kept journals throughout her life – which she has been reading since her memory loss to understand her life.
She says that reading the journals feels like she is peeking into somebody else’s life and doesn’t recognize it as her own.
Not every memory is good – and the Baton Rouge grandma opened up about tearing pages out of the journals in frustration and upset.
Denicola is getting to know her family all over again – including her husband and kids and four grandchildren
She said that the last five years hasn’t been an easy journey but insists that she’s moving forward.
‘I may have lost my memory but guess what we make new ones,’ she said – adding that she makes a choice to keep going every day.
‘You cant be mad and bitter because the good lord left me here for a reason and whatever that may be I’m sure he’ll let me know one or another,’ Denicola said.
She believes that she was put in her position by God to remind people that you ‘don’t have to give up’.
Denicola said her Christmas dream is to have her entire family back together celebrating under one roof.
When she woke at Our Lady of the Lake Medical Centre in Baton Rouge, the last thing Mrs Denicola remembered was her final day of school.
‘I was leaving school and heading for my car,’ she said. ‘I had just taken an exam because I was graduating my senior year.
‘The nurse asked me: “Do you know what year it is?” I said: “Yes, ma’am it is 1980”.
‘She asked me who the president was and I said: “Ronald Reagan”.’
Concerned, the nurse fetched Mrs Denicola’s husband, who cried as his wife failed to recall who he was.
As well as not recognizing her own husband, Mrs Denicola also had no recollection of her children Justin, 35, and Jonathan, 34, or her stepchildren Nicholas, 23, Megan and Matthew, both 19.
The last thing Mrs Denicola can recall is the final day of secondary school, as she headed for her car following an exam. She is pictured in the back row second from the left aged 15
She was also heartbroken to learn that her mother, Lucille Vickers, and father, Jay Harris, had both died years earlier.
‘I felt lost,’ she said. ‘I kept waiting for my mum and dad to show up. When you are 18, that’s what happens.
‘It kept going on and they never showed up. I didn’t know they had passed away. I didn’t remember either of my children. I didn’t know my grandchildren.’
When Mrs Denicola went to look in the mirror, she was horrified to see the reflection gazing back at her after she was convinced she was still a teenager.
‘The awakening came when I went to the restroom and looked in the mirror,’ she said.
‘It wasn’t the me I had remembered. It was a 56-year-old woman.’