I didn’t really know what it meant ‘when the sky falls’. And I didn’t know how tall you can stand together when it does. Just a few hours before Pádraig’s accident I had given a presentation in the South China Sea using Adele’s song Skyfall as the intro. Using this fabulous song, I wanted to make my talk more attractive, and a little bit more dramatic and motivational. It was a real success. Although, looking back, it was pathetic.

However, when I listened to the song again today, I thought “this is it”. When the sky falls, when the most horrible things happen, this is what we have to do: “stand tall”, “stand together”.

A few days ago, a mother who’s daughter had suffered a severe acquired brain injury ten years ago told me that, against what some might have expected, she and her family grew stronger over the years. And while I was listening to her I knew that they were standing tall.

Pádraig, too, is standing tall again. Each day, when he gets out of bed, he and I stand together, he quite a bit taller than myself. It is one of the highlights of each day for me that he manages, with a little bit of help, to lift up his head and hold it, by himself, for a few seconds while standing. And he is adding time to those few seconds every day.

Pat is recovering from her procedure and will hopefully be back home towards the end of the week.

It’s amazing how, when times get tough, humans outgrow themselves, they can stand really tall and find strengths they never knew they had. And become Dreamboaters:)