It must have been another long night in the recording studio judging be the tweets coming in at all hours of the morning. Looks like Smithfield became to small and the gang had to move to Bow Lane. There has been a constant stream of pictures taken and distributed by Caoimhe, Jen, Rónán, and others on Twitter (see a collection of them below). There were also some sneak previews of the making of Dublins 2014 Summer Hit on #AmhránDoPhádraig.
In the meantime, Pádraig managed to Take Five spoons of the green stuff – a sure sign of things to come. He also managed to stay on the speech valve for approximately 6 hours today, which must have been a record. The past few days have felt like as if some pieces begun to fall into place, loads of progress, loads of really good music being played in a Hamburg hospital, and yes, it definitely floated like a dream. He believes and he is making the effort, he knows that he can make it and he is determined to float that boat.
This is not the first time over the past few months that I thought there are things happening here that come what may none of us will ever forget. We will tell our grandchildren and they will tell the story to theirs. We are having, in a transcendent kind of a way, the time of our lives. I include Pádraig in this – what is happening here is pure magic. And we need to keep it going because he won’t give ever give in or give up either.
Unfortunately we have experience of ABI in our family and a lot of what you have outlined is very familiar. Nearly seven years ago my 14 year old daughter was in a serious car accident while on holiday in Vancouver. She sustained a traumatic brain injury and was in a coma in hospital and then rehab in Canada before being transferred direct to the NRH where she spent a further nine months. We put in place a lot of supports and filled in gaps where the irish system was sorely lacking. The whole saga is too long to outline here but I would be very happy to offer any insights that may help or offer support in any way I can. My eldest daughter is now a qualified clinical music therapist following a change of career path directly born from her experience as a sister. Feel free to send me your email address if you would like to network as our work as parents and siblings is ongoing.
I am so sorry to hear about your daughter and her accident, Nicky. Thank you very much for your comment and offer to establish contact. Just sent you a message to your email. Pat and I are very much looking forward to hearing from you. – Reinhard