The person who suggested, four years ago, that I should start writing a blog about Pádraig’s way to recovery in Germany also suggested to focus on the positive aspects, on things others could learn from, on ideas that could help others in a similar situation. Four years ago, we were planning Pádraig’s transfer, in an air ambulance, to Hamburg. We thought we’d be there for a few months until Pádraig would have recovered. Ever since we got there, four years ago, five days from today, I’ve written about his travels, for the lack of a better word, through the German and Irish healthcare system, about his setbacks, but above all about his amazing fight for life.

Sitting down, every evening, to write a few lines or notes, trying to capture experiences, despair, joy, hope and hopelessness, the ups and downs of life, has been therapeutic, in a way. It’s an almost unbroken daily record of nearly four years now that I started to keep his friends in Ireland in the picture once he had left for Germany.  Over time, it became much more than that.

I discovered that there are readers with varying interests. I discovered that some readers were even reading this to make sure I hadn’t written about them. But above all, I discovered that there are people from all over the world who have been with Pádraig almost since the moment his accident happened. People without whom he and I would not be where we are today. Incredible friends. Dreamboaters.

If you do something for almost four years, you’d think it’d become a routine. Or a drag. Or hard to keep doing. After all, what is it in a day that is worth talking about? Day after day?

So far, routine hasn’t arrived yet. Every day is so different and so unique, so exciting, so nerve-racking, so happy, so frustrating and infuriating, so full of hope and promise that the biggest problem I face when I’m trying to write is exhaustion. And the limits of  what I can write about.

Pádraig keeps fighting on. He is still good humoured and is trying so unbelievably hard to recover from his accident. He inspires and motivates so many people in difficult situations, some not un-similar to his own, to keep going, to never give up, to defy dire predictions by the ‘experts’.

One day, I’ll be writing about him talking and walking, about taking control back of his life. One day. When today will be a distant memory.