A Ring for Carolyn

Carolyn Bigham, 19, was just out of high school when she suffered an attack of meningococcic meningitis -- an inflammation of the covering of the brain and spinal cord. The disease left her memory so clouded that she could remember almost nothing of her life. She had to start school all over again in Charlotte, N.C., beginning with the first grade, until finally she could remember enough to graduate from high school again (TIME, July 9, 1951).

During her recovery, Carolyn received hundreds of letters and get-well cards from sympathetic Americans. Among them was a card and a handkerchief from Gwyn Glenn Daniel, 21, an Ardmore, Okla. service-station operator who had read about Carolyn in the papers. Soon they were corresponding regularly, exchanging gifts and photographs. Last spring they met face to face. Said Carolyn: "I had a feeling he would send a ring. I knew I was in love with him." Sure enough, Gwyn sent the ring. Last week after a ceremony in a country church near Charlotte they set off on a honeymoon.

In Los Angeles last week, another memory patient was traveling an even more difficult road. Melvin Eugene Hewitt, 28, injured in a barroom brawl last year, was saved by a quick-thinking doctor who massaged Hewitt's "still" heart for 15 minutes. But he may never recover from the brain damage he suffered. Now living at home with his mother -- he has a two-year-old daughter, is separated from his wife -- Hewitt lives the life, of a dull, 14-year-old boy. Unable to remember events of the present for more than a fleeting moment, he watches boxing on TV ("That's what I want to do when I grow up"), reads, plays the harmonica and guitar, helps a little with the household chores. Doctors offer little hope for further improvement. But, says his confident mother, Mrs. Mabel K. Werrett: "Love can do a lot, you know."

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