It’s late, heading towards the midnight hour in Hamburg. Just finished having a 2-hour call with a colleague and friend in the US, mostly about work, but, inevitably, also about Pádraig and how he is doing.

During that conversation I realised how complicated and complex this whole situation is. What do you answer if someone asks you “and how is Pádraig doing”?

There is the short answer. For some reason, I’m not a man for short answers. (In my first job, when I had been in Ireland for just a short time, someone asked me “how are you”. I grabbed a chair, sat down, and told him. He never asked me that question again:)

Well, how is Pádraig?

He is getting better. All the time. He has setbacks but gets over these, as he does at the moment get over the operation he had last Friday. He has made tremendous progress, really, compared to where he was after the accident. One day, I will get back to those days when doctors were confronting us with the most difficult questions you could ask a parent. When they were completely and utterly out of line. Not today. Pádraig can eat (small quantities and mashed and very smooth like stewed apple or yoghurt); he can communicate (moving his tongue, most of the time); we have heard him saying words (very few and very simple words which were very ‘breathed’, with a very low and weak ‘breathed’ voice); he can breathe by himself and without additional oxygen (most of the time); he can sit in a wheelchair for several hours without a problem; he can ‘stand’ on a tilt table for 30 minutes; he can ‘cycle’ the MOTOMed (the  machine moves his legs); he squeezes our hands at appropriate times; he smiles and (sometimes) cries at the appropriate times. All very basic things. But he is with us. And he is improving in very small steps all the time.

While he himself cannot move or control most of his body, he has been moving hundreds and thousands of people around the world. Many have been doing things they had never ever even had dreamt of – until they launched the Dreamboat and got on board.

But, above all, there have been so many people, countless, who have expressed their love in a way that must have changed them forever. In a way that they will never forget. In their lifetime. They will pass this on to their children and grandchildren. And together, they will make the world a better place.

I got a call this morning. It took a while until I realised who I was talking to. It was Pádraig’s orthodontist. He asked me to send him “Amhrán do Pádraig” posters for his practice; and he offered to look after Pádraig’s teeth, visit him, make sure they were ok. Imagine that. Think about it. That was another Dreamboater, just like yourself!

I wish I could be with you tomorrow night in person. In spirit, I will be. Pádraig will be there too. Right bang in the middle. Sticking out heads above everyone else. One of his arms high up in the air. Smiling. Sailing down the stream. Having fun. On the Dreamboat.

Nothing is impossible if you believe in it.