A TV ad shows a baby’s stomach retracting during the night and how this particular nappy they want us to buy adjusts. Each time I watch the ad I am getting so jealous of that baby. I wish my stomach retracted. Instead, it’s expanding. Despite my very best efforts.

Ireland has been very successful in flattening the curve. I, unfortunately, have lost that battle.

It’s not for lack of trying. And there is always hope combined with determination and perseverance.

One of the mornings this week when I got up early for my regular ‘run’ (you know what I mean), I heard  this loud shout coming from the direction of Pádraig’s room. I thought I was hearing things because that was not the voice of Pádraig’s carer and it could hardly have been Pádraig himself, it was so loud.

When I returned from my run and talked to the carer, they told me that Pádraig had used his voice during that whole night and gave a big shout early in the morning. It was that shout I had heard.

Pádraig has been using his voice over the past months, but he usually needs something to initiate sounds. Like when he drinks, or just before or after a cough. He then manages to clearly pronounce vowels, such as “a”, “e”, “o”, “u”. That night, he didn’t need any ‘initiator’. A brilliant first and, hopefully, a sign of more good things to come.

I came across a blog last week, called Transitioning Angels, written by Tracy, a lone parent to two sons, aged 12 and 8. Brendan Bjorn (12) is severely disabled, medically fragile, and has very high palliative care requirements. Her latest blog was on “The Disabled, their Family Carers, and COVID-19 in Ireland“. As she is mowing the grass in her garden and recalls how her father explained to her the difference between weeds and flowers, she wonders:

Would my own dad consider this grandson, whom he never got to meet, as a weed to be discarded as other family members have suggested, or would he see him as I do, as a happy blossom of love and light?

That sentence staid with me. It is almost beyond my comprehension.

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait is a wise saying – and a Guinness advert from 1995. I still like it. The saying, the ad, and the Guinness. And I really look forward to the day I can have that pint in good company and a nice public space.

Although I tried, I couldn’t find the Pampers advert with the baby’s stomach shrinking. No problem to find the Guinness ad. Enjoy!

There was a follow up ad a few years later, Horses and Surfers – for those who can wait.

And the music? – Almost as good as the magic Italian original from 1958 by Gloria Christian.