What if

the extraordinary becomes ordinary

the notion of ‘second life’ becomes a reality

despair turns into a daily experience

rays of hope, fun, love, and solidarity provide are your survival kit

instead of money, greed, or power

What if you took time for what matters

I was thinking about this today. Never, in my life, would I have expected to be able to survive anything even close to this. Not just that but I believe I became a stronger and, likely, better person because of Pádraig. He, reduced everything to the essential. It gave me focus, single vision, clear priorities.

Today, I showed his two physios how to put him on his feet. It worked. Was I proud? Was I proud, or what?

He also managed to hold his arm up on one of those triangle hanging down from an ‘arm’ over his bed, not for 1, not for 2 or 3, but for nearly 4 minutes.

I was proud of Pádraig, so proud, because with his own single-minded never-let-go so-immensely-annoying attitude he is now able to do things that are close to miracles. Just think about proposed organ donations – on second thoughts, don’t. That would have finished the job started by the van that hit Pádraig.

Today, he ate two bowles of semolina and broccoli soup, as well as some of his carrots and meet, all minced (he didn’t touch the mashed potatoes), and then washed it down with orange and plum juice.

So I went for a short run (remember the marathon?) and got so lost on the UKE grounds that I had to ask someone for the “Notaufnahme” (A&E) – explaining that despite my exhausted look, purple red face and fast breathing I did *not* require urgent medical help…

We’ll both sleep well tonight.