¿Quien me presta una escalera para subir al madero, para quitarle los clavos a Jesús el Nazareno?
La Saeta, Antonio Machado

Antonio Machado was looking for someone to get him a ladder to climb up the cross, to remove the nails from Jesus the Nazarene. Joan Manuel Serrat put music to Machado’s poem, which really captures the spirit and the atmosphere of Holy Week, the famous Semana Santa, in Andalucía.

Listen back to yesterday morning’s RTÉ Radio One Rising Time with Lilian Smith, first mentioning our email to her and then
announcing the upcoming Concert of the Year,
followed by a fabulous cover by Honor of Joni Mitchell’s All I want.

Join us this coming Wednesday with your friends in the National Concert Hall for a great evening in brilliant company, hosted by the legendary Honor Heffernan & Friends – with all proceeds going to the Teach An Saol Project, the National Centre for Life and Living with a severe Acquired Brain Injury.

Ticket are €20 directly from the NCH.

We went on our now annual visit to Torrelavega, about half an hour outside of Santander, to Pádraig’s favourite rehab place in Spain, where Marcos and Laura worked their magic. The three of them were exhausted after their intensive, two hour sessions during the three days we went. They worked mainly on Pádraig’s upper body trying to strengthen his core.

They worked entirely in Spanish with Pádraig and he had no problem following their instructions. The most amazing detail there was not that Pádraig understood them so well but that nobody thought it was a big deal that someone with a very severe brain injury had no problem actively participating in his physio session, no matter whether it’s in Irish, English, German, or Spanish.

Each of the three days, following two hours of hard work, we went out for a walk and had lunch, as close to the sea as we could get.

Pádraig still likes his ‘pulpo’. He had to cut down this year a bit as pulpo a la gallega is now the price of a full menu. An absolute delicacy.

We all had such a great time, trying out the different tastes of Spanish food. It made me realise again how important it is to keep the taste buds going. Using your senses is being alive. During the week, someone mentioned to me that if you cannot use your senses, if you are deprived for whatever reason of sensory input and experiences, you will fall unconscious. He promised to send me the scientific backup for this – but my common sense tells me that this must be true.

The best news of the week, however, came from Longford.

Niall was brought back home from England following a devastating accident 35 years ago – to die. The family was told that there was no hope. For decades, he was not given access to a neurologist. He lost all his teeth because he was never going to eat again. Everybody, except his family and friends gave up on him.

This week, his sister posted on his Facebook page that he will be transitioning from a nursing home to supported living, were he will be with people of his own age.

We have met Niall many times. He is a good friend of Pádraig’s who has also visited the An Saol Foundation Centre. Niall talks, eats, and uses his tablet for all sorts of therapeutic purposes. Also for fun, I am sure. He and his sister are absolute heroes. For neither of them, giving up was ever an option.

The health system should be taking notice.

Machado’s poem and Serrat’s song end with the lines:

Oh, you are not my song!
I cannot and will not sing
to this Jesus on the cross,
but to the one who walked on the sea.

¡Oh, no eres tú mi cantar!
¡No puedo cantar, ni quiero
a ese Jesús del madero,
sino al que anduvo en el mar!

We don’t need ladders to take dead people down from their crosses.

Because we believe that we can walk on water, defy all the odds, demonstrate to those who write us off that they are wrong. Never give up.

Happy Easter!