John McNeal began to notice a while ago that his wife, Kate, had begun doing things that she never uses to do. Maybe she would leave the stove on or maybe she would lose her keys at the mall or maybe she would just forget where she was going while en route. John really didn’t think much of it at first since Kate seemed to have a razor sharp memory about some other things. She seemed to be able to remember just fine things like how he had chosen the wrong parking spot when they went out for dinner months ago or that he had been a little too friendly with a co-worker at an office party five years ago. Every detail remembered accurately.

Then things got worse.

Kate started to have trouble remembering specific dates like appointments and people’s birthdays but still seemed to flawlessly remember that she had told John exactly eight times how to load the dishwasher correctly. She misplaced her purse in the fridge but remembered that, back in the 90s, John had thought it was OK to buy her a birthday gift after her actual birthday date.

Obviously, it was time to seek medical help. They enlisted the help of Dr. Frank Prat, a memory loss specialist. Dr. Prat informed the couple that indeed Kate was beginning to suffer memory loss. In fact it was a rare Form of dementia called Spouse Flaw Specific Memory Retention (SFSMR). Like more common forms of memory loss, SFSMR seems to not affect memories of past actions of a spouse while slowly reducing almost all other kinds of memory. It is not unusual for wives to forget their favorite recipe while clearly remembering that time her husband chose to watching the game with his buddies over having dinner with her parents.

SFSMR is becoming more common and is affecting wives at younger ages. Dr. Prat also has found there is no cure at this time for SFSMR although there has been some therapies that have been found to help with general memory loss.