Musicophilia- Oliver Sacks

This book took me quite a while to get through. The book opens with the story of tony cicoria, an orthopedic surgeon, who while making a call at a payphone, got struck by lightning. What happened next is simply mind blowing. Not only did he survive the event, he became "musically inclined". Tony cicoria had practically no training in piano but after the incident, began to have this burning desire to listen to piano music. He taught himself to play the piano thereafter (at a grand old age of 42) and managed to play it very well and was also able to compose music! Here's a clip of his playing:
http://youtu.be/tDtYkxSCV18

Another condition i found interesting was brain/ear worms. I thought this condition is quite common. I would think quite a number of people have had this experience of a song sticking to their brains to the point of it getting a little annoying. The anecdotes described in the book were quite extreme, with people losing sleep and having their lives disrupted by this condition.

One of my favorite anecdotes was that of Clive Wearing in the chapter Music and Amnesia. Clive Wearing is a musician with severe amnesia, so severe that his memory span lasts only a few seconds. Not only that, Clive has no memory of his past either. However, he is able to retain his musical ability and continue to play the piano.
What drew me to this story was that of his wife Deborah Wearing. Deborah wrote a book called Forever Today, a memoir of her life with Clive. I thought it was a very beautiful love story.

It is rather strange that even though Clive had lost all his memory, he was still able to recognize Deborah and always looked forward to seeing her.

An excerpt by Deborah:

"To catch sight of me was a massive relief- to know that he was not alone, that i still cared, that I loved him, that I was there..... Everytime he saw me, he would run to me, fall on me, sobbing, clinging. "

The mind may forget, but the heart doesn't.

Their story reminds me of the song "The Dutchman", which talks about a wife caring for her husband who had succumbed to senility. Thought it was rather sweet. But then it brings to mind something I've read that women tend to stay on in a marriage to care for a sick spouse but the same cant be said for men. Men usually abandon their spouses when they become afflicted with illnesses. What gives ?