Imagine waking up and thinking you were 17 again and not remembering the last 12 years of your life.

It might sound like the latest movie at the local cinema, but it's real life for a former Coaldale resident and her family.Allison Sandholm, formerly Allison Shokey, thought everyone was playing a bad joke on her two years ago when she woke up in a hospital bed and didn't recognize anyone in the room. The Schuylkill County native remembers waking up to a woman sitting in a chair."Everything was a blur," recalls Allison. "I immediately asked to see my mom."It was a wintry January night, in 2010. Allison, her husband Kristofor, and their staff were closing up their restaurant, The Starfish, in Bethlehem, after one of the busiest evenings of the year, when Allison fell and hit her head. An ambulance rushed the 29-year old to St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem.Allison slipped in and out of consciousness for a few hours. She woke up thinking it was May 10th, 1998, which was the year she had been in a car crash with a high school friend."I was really, really annoyed," says Allison in explaining her feelings when the trauma specialist kept asking her routine questions like her name, age and the year. "I really wanted to know about my friend's condition who had been in the car with me during the accident."Delicately the trauma specialist explained to Allison about her head injury and informed her it was January 2010 and not May 1998. Allison didn't believe her, but when she looked out the window, the snow flurries seemed to confirm the woman's story. Allison had amnesia.Kristofor stood next to his wife's bed. He was incredulous."Holy s***! You have to be kidding me. I knew it was legit when I stepped towards her and she freaked. First thing she said was I want my mom...," Kristofor remembers the devastating moment when he realized his wife didn't remember him. What's more, she didn't remember her mom was gone, "then I got to break the news to her, that her mom had passed away."It was an emotionally charged day. Allison spent it mourning her mom's death, learning about her life through scrapbooks and stories being recounted by relatives she didn't remember. Looking at her wedding pictures, Allison says, was an out-of-body experience."It was as if someone had cropped my face and pasted them on the pictures. There I was, but I didn't remember anything," she says.Kris had his own concerns."I was worried she wouldn't love me anymore," Kris said, "we had spent six years together before the accident. The last thing I wanted to do was walk away from that just because she couldn't remember and at the same time I hadn't forgotten anything."After nearly a week, Allison was released from the hospital. She was relieved to be going home. Until she realized she wasn't going to the home she remembered in Coaldale, but to a home she had no memory of in Pen Argyl. Allison's sister, Jackie, moved in with the couple to ease the tension.Kris recalls those difficult first days." I slept at the restaurant for the first two weeks. Neither of us were comfortable being in the house together. Then when I started staying at home, I slept on the couch," he says.Three weeks after the accident Kris attempted to recreate their first date hoping to trigger a memory. However, he says the experience was much different the second time around,"We went to the same place we went on our first date, but this time she was timid and her sister was with us," he says.It has been a trying two years for the couple and their families. Allison and Kris have spent the time getting to know each other and creating new memories. Along the way, they have shared some laughs and many tears. They have gained some friends and lost some. Recently the couple reached a milestone.After the accident, Allison had returned her engagement ring and wedding band to Kris, explaining she wasn't comfortable wearing a symbol of a commitment she didn't remember. On Christmas Eve 2011, Kris proposed for the second time to his wife. She joyfully accepted."I've grown a lot over these last two years," says Allison with a nostalgic smile on her face. "I don't think about the memory loss too much. Not like I was in the beginning."As far as the future is concerned, Allison and Kris say they are taking it one day at a time, but are optimistic about their renewed relationship.The couple would like to thank the friends and family who have helped them through the journey.