When Jim Saunders says he has something on his mind he’s not exaggerating - he has lived with a bullet in his brain for 30 years.
He miraculously survived after his first wife put a gun to his forehead while he was asleep and pulled the trigger.
The .25-calibre bullet lodged three inches deep in a delicate position between two optic nerves and the two halves of his brain.
Survivor: Jim Saunders he has lived with a bullet in his brain for 30 years
Reminder: Mr Saunders still wears the scar from when the .25-calibre bullet entered his skull
Although it left Jim virtually blind and without any sense of smell, doctors decided it was too risky to try and remove it.
Rather than brood on the handicap – still marked by a puckered scar on his forehead – Jim threw a party on Wednesday to mark the 30th anniversary of the shooting that should have ended his life.
Jim, 52, from Abilene, Texas, split from first wife Jill Saunders after the shooting. She was sentenced to 20 years behind bars, but was paroled after just four years for good behaviour.
The couple met when Faith was a student at Abilene Christian University and wed after dating for two years. But Jim told the Abilene Reporter that their marriage started falling apart after he caught her cheating on him with other women.
'Believer': Mr Saunders threw a party on Wednesday to mark the 30th anniversary of the shooting that should have ended his life
Although they argued, he never saw the events of the night of August 24, 1981, coming.
With her husband fast asleep at 3am, Faith pointed the .25 caliber pistol he had bought her as a gift at his head at point blank range and fired.
In her police statement, Faith drove around for an hour before returning to find her blood-covered husband still alive and telling a co-worker what she had done.
Jim was in a coma for two weeks and even had a chunk of his brain removed to help quell the swelling. It was later replaced.
Despite his ordeal, Jim briefly forgave his wife and they attempted a short-lived reconciliation.
Now he has no clue where she is, but lives happily with his second wife, Kathryn, a nurse he wed ten years ago.
‘There is absolutely no bitterness in his heart,’ said Kathryn. 'He’s a simple person.’
‘I hope she’s alive,’ Jim told the Reporter. ‘And if not, I hope that before she died she had the chance to start doing things right.’
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