A split second was all it took to shatter Judi Green's life.

"I was driving a car with my sister, and I heard a horrific bang in my head," she says.

When she woke up in hospital, her speech made no sense, her memory had vanished, and she didn't recognise her two children.

Doctors didn't expect her to live.

The 39-year-old Tamworth high school teacher had suffered a stroke.

In a single moment — a bleed on her brain — her family began to fall apart. Piecing it back together would take decades, a lot of forgiveness and a little luck.

Suddenly, everything changes

After four weeks of rehabilitation, Judi was sent home from hospital — but it wasn't a home she knew.

"I didn't know who I was and I didn't know who my husband and children were," she recalls.

"And my personality had changed completely... I swore a lot."

She remembers thinking of her four-year-old daughter, Portia, as a "lovely little girl", without recognising who she was.

After her stroke, Judi called her daughter by the wrong name ( Supplied: Judi Green )

Portia, who is now 27, remembers her mum calling her by her aunt's name, Suey.

"It was really confusing for me, not understanding why mum didn't know who I was or what my name was," she says.

"That made me quite angry at her. My brother and I just didn't respect her much because she didn't even know our names.

"I kept saying that I just wanted the old mummy back."

A family breaks apart

It wasn't just Judi's relationship with her children that suffered.

Her marriage broke down.

"I remember very clearly mum and dad screaming in their bedrooms and my brother making me stay in my bedroom," Portia recalls.

"I used to get myself ready for school and pack my own lunch. I'd try to wake her but she was very drowsy, which I didn't understand back then.

"Honestly, she didn't really look like she was even in the moment. It's like she was in her own head, you'd be having a conversation with her and it was like she wasn't even in the room."

Judi's son, Alexander, refused to speak with his mother.

And when Judi and her husband eventually divorced, he was granted custody of the children.

Judi was only allowed to see them at Christmas and on their birthdays.

'It was incredibly hard'

Judi eventually moved from Tamworth to Sydney to be near her brother.

Over the next 10 years she worked hard to defy the expectations of her doctors, who had predicted minimal improvement.

But she was determined to relearn lost skills and to regain her memory.

"It was incredibly hard," she says.

"I had to learn to speak by looking at people. And I remember the day that I ran, I was so excited... it took me about eight years before I could do that."

But Judi still lacked insight into the impact of her behaviour on others and she obsessively travelled to Tamworth each month to see her children.

Portia remembers a time that Judi tried to drag her into the car.

"It felt like she was trying to kidnap me. You didn't know what she was capable of — it was scary," she says.

As a result, Portia's relationship with her mother changed; she didn't want anything to do with Judi.

"I just ignored her if she came to any school events, I acted like I didn't know who she was," Portia says.

"I was embarrassed and definitely afraid of her because I didn't know her and what she was going to do."

Finally, reconciliation

Judi's stroke changed her relationship with her family, including daughter Portia, for years. ( ABC RN: Claudia Taranto )

Eleven years after her stroke, Judi reconciled with Alexander after going to one of his student art exhibitions.

Gradually, they rebuilt their relationship.

It took a little longer to restore her relationship with her daughter — who had gone on to train as an assistant nurse.

Portia's first job as an assistant nurse, coincidentally, was with Acquired Brain Injury Services, which included supporting stroke sufferers and their carers.

It helped her gain a "massive insight" into what her mum went through.

"That was the pivotal moment when I went 'oh my gosh, there are two sides to this story'," she says.

"And I can't imagine how hard it would have been for my mum.

"Maybe everything isn't her fault."

Judi says "there is hope for everybody" after serious brain injury. ( ABC RN: Claudia Taranto )

Portia came to understand how brain injuries can change someone's personality and remove their memory and insight.

Alexander eventually helped reunite them, and now, they see each other every week, and Judi adores caring for Portia's baby son.

And Judi is grateful that Portia has come to trust her.

"Portia has just grown and I'm so lucky to have her," she says.

Judi has remarried and can now drive a car, use a mobile phone, travel independently and follow a recipe — just some of the many skills she has worked hard to relearn.

Her advice for other stroke sufferers?