Susan Kennedy - Development - Retrograde Amnesia

Retrograde Amnesia

In 2002, Susan developed retrograde amnesia. The storyline saw Susan slip on some spilt milk and sustain a minor head injury. After she goes to sleep, she wakes up and has lost three decades of her life. Woodburne told Inside Soap's Jason Herbison that Susan believes the year is 1972 and the night before was her sixteenth birthday, where she drank too much champagne. She does not recognise her house and thinks she passed out and ended up somewhere else. Susan's family take her to the hospital, where she is diagnosed with retrograde amnesia. Karl becomes determined to tell her the truth about her condition, while her nephew, Darcy (Mark Raffety), insists they treat her "with kid gloves." Woodburne revealed "Susan keeps asking when she's going to be allowed home to see her parents, and eventually Karl breaks the new - her parents are long dead and she's actually 45, not 16 as she believes. And on top of that, Karl is her husband!" Susan turns to her daughter Libby – who she believes is her sister Carmel (Kirsty Child) – for comfort. But when Libby confirms what Karl has told her, Susan leaves the hospital. Susan spots some students in Seventies clothes and she follows them to a Seventies themed party at Erinsborough High. However, the students recognise Susan as their principal, which distresses her. Susan ends up in the bathroom and she sees herself in the mirror for the first time since the accident, and is shocked to see a middle-aged woman staring back at her.

As she struggles with her condition, doctors suggest to Karl that going back to familiar surroundings may trigger the return of her memories. Susan is brought to Ramsay Street, but nothing happens. Woodburne stated that Susan hates her hair and her clothes and wants to change everything. Karl takes her to Lyn Scully's salon and manages to persuade her to have her hair styled rather than cut short. While she is at the salon, Susan remembers her high school sweetheart, Craig Benson (Tim Hughes), and decides to find him. Woodburne told Herbison "As far as she's concerned, Craig is her boyfriend and they're in love. So she looks him up in the phone book and sets off to find him." Woodburne added that there was a danger the storyline could cross a line and become silly, but the crew tried to portray the fear a person would feel when everything is suddenly unfamiliar. Susan falls in love with Karl and her memories return during their vow renewal service. During a 2012 interview, Woodburne told a What's on TV reporter that she and the writers initially joked about the storyline, but they found some truth in it. She explained "It was actually based on a story of a woman who lived in England. The same thing happened to her. She fell over in a supermarket. Between leaving the supermarket and getting home, she'd lost 30 years. I don't think she recovered. She had a husband and grown-up children and she had no idea who they were. Imagine the terror and the fear of being surrounded by these people who tell you that they are your family. But you feel nothing."