In Germany, the “Onkel aus Amerika” was always the big promise of new stuff. The Onkel was well travelled, had plenty of money, and, above all, was super cool. Today, Pádraig’s uncle from America arrived in Dublin. He’ll be with us on Monday.

We went out to the roof terrace, just in time for the rain. And just in time for a big party. A lady with iranian roots had her birthday, and her family, about a dozen really nice people had brought presents , coffee, tea, and home made cakes and biscuits. With a bit of combined iranian/german engineering ingenuity we managed to fix a huge sun umbrella that gave us all sufficient shelter from the rain to have a lovely time celebrating this lady’s birthday. It was so different from anything else we had seen before here: a big family getting together to celebrate with their really sick mother, cakes, candles, singing and all.

Yesterday, we had a meeting with a “Landesärztin”, a doctor of the Bundesland Hamburg, who explained to us the different options for further care for Pádraig, if and when he will be leaving the Schön-Klinik. There was nothing concrete, it was a first meeting we had with her after all, but we are beginning to learn what the German health system offers to people like Pádraig who are slowly recovering from a very severe brain injury and multiple operations. What was, perhaps, most surprising was how much the “Landesärztin” tried to convince us that we, too, had a life, and that we had to look after us, too, our life, our work, our well-being. Which lead to her strong suggestion to find a place for Pádraig where we would not be the main people responsible to look after him. Comparing the number of people who visit people in Germany in Ireland, this seems to be the manifestation of a big cultural difference between the two countries. Germans hand over the responsibility to the ‘professionals’, Irish people get involved and are very slow to hand over responsibility of care to others. Still not sure how to explain this, but this is another big cultural difference.

I missed it (no surprise there, unfortunately; wasn’t the first time) but when Pádraig’s uncle was on the phone to him today from Dublin, and when he told Pádraig that he had brought over ‘stuff’ for him –  there was the closest thing to a laugh and a big smile Pádraig has ever shown over the past year. Nothing like an uncle from America!

He would have smiled again, had we been able to show him tonight the brilliant pictures from today’s Swim for Pádraig, organised by Leinster Open Sea Swim. He’ll have to wait until tomorrow!

Here’s a short report from a good friend (who graciously ignored my distinguished record as a sea swimmer). Pádraig would have really really loved the day!

We had a great afternoon at the Swim for Padráig at Killiney today.  I came third (last).  Sean and Isaac swam really well.  Lynn provided the usual cake.  The only thing missing was you guys.  I am attaching some photos with this email.  Also going to send a second email with more photos from another devise.  Hopefully it will give you an idea of the lovely afternoon we had on the beach.

 

Thank you to Leinster Sea Swimming, especially our good friend Eoin Gaffney (who once took me under his wings for my second sea swim), and all who participated! – You made all the difference!!!