Seizures make this woman forget a lot, but not her wedding song
For something to be unforgettable to Tricia Pariseau, whose epileptic seizures make her forget many things, means something else.
"She doesn't know the house or her bedroom. Sometimes, at the very beginning of it, she doesn't even really remember us," her son Jordan Pariseau says of the temporary memory lapses.
Michael and Tricia Pariseau were first married in 1994, then split up in 2013. They reunited during the pandemic, and married on their anniversary on June 18, 2021. (Courtesy: Jordan Pariseau)
Yet, however many times a seizure robs the Edmonton woman of some of the most familiar sights and sounds for a few days, she can still sing along to "Do You Remember."
"Can't remember her whole name, but she can remember the song," Jordan told CTV News Edmonton.
The song may be ingrained in Tricia's memory, perhaps, but is likely unfamiliar to most others.
Tricia asked Jordan, a hip-hop artist also known as JusJrdn, to write it for her second wedding to his dad, Michael, when they remarried.
The pair were together for 19 years before separating in 2013 and getting back together during the pandemic.
Another seizure nearly postponed their second marriage, but Tricia made an unusually quick recovery, Jordan says, in time for the wedding on the weekend of their original anniversary, June 18.
They danced to Jordan's song first, then "Forever and Ever, Amen" by Randy Travis, to which they danced for the first time as husband and wife so many years ago.
"I was really trying to tell their story about how complicated love really is. Real love isn't this fairy tale: you know, glass slipper, happily ever after, everything is perfect," Jordan told CTV News Edmonton.
Michael and Tricia Pariseau were first married in 1994, then split up in 2013. They reunited during the pandemic, and married on their anniversary on June 18, 2021. (Courtesy: Jordan Pariseau)
"Real love is pain. Real love is growth. Real love is excitement. Real love is truth and honesty. True love is also like getting through the hard times and finding a new way of envisioning yourself and somebody else forming together."
So he didn't skim over his parent's separation during the writing process. They cried hearing it for the first time.
And the way in which it has stuck with his mother represents the potential of music and art, Jordan says.
Jordan Pariseau, also known as JusJrdn by hip hop fans, said he was nervous to attempt a waltz ballad, but said the finished version was raw and authentic.
"That just showed me as an artist the impact music really has on us as a human being. It's so deeply structured into our human being that even when things aren't going properly in mind and body, our deep attachment to art, especially to music, is just such an incredible, divine, almost magical thing," the artist commented.
"Love is complicated. Life is complicated. Art kind of just helps make things a little bit simpler."
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Kyra Markov
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.