Australian woman remembers every single detail of her life. So they put her to the test on '60 Minutes.'

While most people struggle to recall what they ate last weekend, Rebecca Sharrock remembers every single day of her life with astonishing clarity. The 34-year-old from Brisbane, Australia, has a rare neurological condition called Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), also known as hyperthymesia. This allows her to recall specific details from any date with remarkable precision, according to BBC. In 2019, 60 Minutes Australia (@60MinutesAU) put her extraordinary memory to the test—and the results left reporters stunned.

“So what happened on the 5th of November 2008?” the show’s host asked Sharrock. “[It] was a Wednesday. I just heard on the news that Barack Obama had become the US president,” Sharrock told her. The reporter gave her another date—3rd of April 2005. She promptly replied that it was a Sunday. “That's when I heard that Pope John Paul II died, and it was a week after Easter, and I still had some chocolate to eat,” she described as if reliving that day in 2005.

Sharrock (also known as Becky) confessed that this superpower is as much of a curse as it is a gift. Sensory stimuli like sights, sounds, words or smells can sometimes make her recall painful memories like harsh words someone said to her or when her lollipop or toys were taken away from her. She could be walking down a street feeling happy and suddenly burst into tears because a hurtful memory would pop up in her mind. Her remarkable memory power sometimes causes her to sink into depression, confusion and anxiety. “If I’m remembering an incident that happened when I was three, my emotional response to the situation is like a three-year-old, even though my mind and conscience are like an adult,” she told BBC.

“I’m currently one of 80 people in the world known to have HSAM and can remember every day of my life. Now I have released my first book, ‘My Life is a Puzzle,’” Sharrock describes in her X bio. “People can remember what they did last Saturday, but I can remember what I did on Saturday 10 years ago,” she described in an interview with Great Big Story’s “Human Condition,” a microdocumentary series launched by CNN in 2010.

When 60 Minutes Australia’s host took her to “Harry Potter World” at Universal Studios in Hollywood, she revealed that she’s a great fan of Harry Potter and remembers every word from every chapter of all seven Harry Potter books. To verify this claim, the host asked her about Chapter 17 of the first book. Without a hiccup, Sharrock replied that the chapter’s title was “The Man With Two Faces,” which was the correct answer according to the page the host was reading. She described how the chapter started with the character of Quirrell and the expression he uttered while stuttering.

Wondering if the tests were too easy, the host upped her game and gave her just one line from the book. "Keep your voice down," said Harry crossly. "I just need to sort of fine-tune it, alright," she narrated to Sharrock. In a prompt response, she said, "That was chapter 26 in the 'Goblet of Fire.'"

It wasn’t until January 23, 2011, when Sharrock and her parents paid closer attention to her unusual memory. Back then, 60 Minutes Australia posted an episode in which experts were talking about extraordinary autobiographical memory. When Sharrock’s mother, Janet, watched this episode, she instantly knew that her daughter had this rare condition. This segment featured Professor Craig Stark, a neurobiology and behavior researcher at the University of California, who first discovered this phenomenon.

After two years of study, Stark officially diagnosed her with HSAM in 2013. Ever since, Sharrock has dedicated herself to two research projects with the University of Queensland and the University of California, whose findings could help people suffering from memory disorders. “Due to my autism, I don’t like change of any sort. I want to continue thinking and feeling the way I do because it’s just how I’ve always thought and felt, but I’d like to just find ways of dealing with [it],” she told BBC. “It’s just the person I’ve always known… I want to keep that.”