Blank Canvas: The Amazing Story of a Woman Who Awoke from a Coma to a Life She Couldn’t Remember

When Marcy Gregg awoke from a coma, 13 years had vanished from her memory.
She was 30 years old; she thought she was still 17. She didn’t recognize the man who introduced himself as her husband. She stared at pictures of the three children they said were hers, trying desperately to remember them, but her mind was blank.

Terrified and confused, Marcy did the only thing she could think of: she faked it. She told the doctors she was starting to remember and bluffed her way through visits from friends and family. Against all odds, it worked: she was released to a home, family, and life she should have known intimately―but seemed to be a stranger’s. How was she going to pull off the biggest acting challenge imaginable―and would her memories ever return?

Ghost Boy meets What Alice Forgot in this amazing true story of a woman who lost herself and tried to fight her way back on her own―but who found unexpected beauty in hope, faith, and second chances.

March 1990, Presbyterian Hospital

I opened my eyes again to see the man with the warm smile and the sandy blond hair from before. Dev.

“Marcy,” he said, taking my hand. “I know things are a little fuzzy right now, but it’s okay. We’re going to get through this. Together.”

It still hurt to talk, and for once, I was grateful, because I honestly didn’t know what to say. Everyone kept telling me my memory was hazy because of the coma following the birth of my baby girl. Maybe they were right. Maybe I really was 30. Maybe I did know this man.

“You remember Casen and Conner,” he asked hopefully, “our little boys?”

Casen and Conner?

I have three kids with this man?

I gave Dev a faint smile, but my heart was racing so quickly, I worried he would be able to see it pounding right through the sheets.

What kind of mother doesn’t remember her own kids?

I closed my eyes and tried to remember, but all I saw was darkness. When I looked back up, Dev’s eyes were filled with tears.

That poor man.

I wanted so badly to remember him.

To remember our children.

To remember anything.

Beautifully rendered and full of rawness, truth, and hope, Blank Canvas is a reminder that no matter what we have suffered or lost, there is still beauty to be found in a new beginning.