17 months.

The last few days were so busy that the date never registered. It was the 27th of June of last year when the 4.3 ton van, driven by a local man, hit Pádraig on what we now know has been a well-known local accident black-spot for a long time on Route 6A in Brewster.

17 months.

It is also Thanksgiving.

Nuair a bhíonn rudaí tábhachtacha, a chairde Pádraig ar labhairt na Gaeilge. – I had to do a Department of the Gaeltacht Irish Government job on this and resort to an automatic translation programme to read and reply to the messages by Pádraig’s friends (no, I have not forgotten about the promise of making another effort to learn Gaeilge:). But it is really amazing to see how language connects people, reaffirms who they are and what they stand for. In my life (and it’s been a long life:), I haven’t seen or experienced such a strong bond.

The day started well. Pat arrived just before 2am, with 15 minutes of “Verspätung” – a word completely unheard of in German train stations (in ‘my time’ trains were never ever late, but “pünktlich”). It gave me time to check out the 24-hour McDonalds in the train station – Wahnsinn.

Feeling my way through the darkness, guided by a beating heart. I can’t tell where the journey will end, but I know where to start. They tell me I’m too young to understand, they say I’m caught up in a dream. Well, life will pass me by if I don’t open up my eyes.

Hope I get the chance to travel the world, but I don’t have any plans. Wish that I could stay forever this young, not afraid to close my eyes. Life’s a game made for everyone and love is the prize.

So wake me up when it’s all over. When I’m wiser and I’m older. All this time I was finding myself and I didn’t know I was lost.

That’s what the radio was playing this morning when I was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for the plumbers. (They did arrive just after 7am and were gong by 7:50am.) – If you are in the right state of mind even the songs on the radio have a ‘meaning’.

A lot done, more to do. Even Dublin Bus got the message. (Ok, the picture is s few years old and the guy pictured on the bus in the centre isn’t half as popular as he once used to be.)

I was finishing up some work. Pat went to the hospital early. When I got in at around 3pm, they were a bit behind schedule, but planning to bring Pádraig up to the operating theatre within half an hour. That didn’t happen.

And then, at around 5pm or so, they cancelled the operation. There had been delays and emergencies in the operation theatre and it had just got too late.

You can just imagine how we all felt. Anticlimax is not the word. Wake me up when it’s all over.

But there is More to do. Tomorrow. Another part of the journey. Humming the Dreamboat. Dam, dadadadaa, dadada dam.

Tonight, 16 months ago, we were in such a shock that we barely ate or drank or slept. For weeks. Tonight, tonight, Pádraig is with us. And he is getting better. Humming the Dreamboat. It’s floating like a dream. Sailing down the stream. He believes. (And I have lost my doubts.)

Don’t forget to keep this coming Wednesday free for the launch of the Amhrán do Pádraig / Song for Pádraig CD, at 8pm, in the Grand Social, Dublin. 152 friends have confirmed they’ll be there. Keep tweeting about it, put it up on your FB pages, and tell everyone to be there – otherwise they’ll be missing out on one of the best Music CD launches ever!