Let the sky fall. When it crumbles. We will stand tall. Face it all together.
Adele, Skyfall

At around 3pm Dublin time yesterday, 13 years ago, I had given a successful invited presentation to the guests of one of China’s biggest localisation service providers, following a visit to the Chinese opera, a dinner in the French restaurant overlooking Tiananmen Square, and a flight to Sanya on Hainan Island in the South China Sea.

The presentation followed the story line of Adele’s song about the worst thing that could possibly happen to you. And how you have to react to it. The theme was topical at the time as the position of localisation service providers was fundamentally challenged by what was known as Community Localisation.

Together with a friend, I had won a poolside competition.

I was about to go to bed in the early hours of the morning, Sanya time, when I received the phone call that changed life forever.

Skyfall became real.

In the middle of the night, I left it all behind, and flew to Boston via Shanghai and Detroit.

In my head I was now singing Forever Young. Thinking of Pádraig in Cape Cod Hospital, in Hyannis.

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
May you stay forever young


This year, we went to Carlingford to celebrate life.

I don’t know anyone who has adapted to such a profound change in their life as Pádraig has. Of the many qualities I admire in him, this is perhaps the greatest.

Rainer Maria Rilke’s words best describe my own experience: Perhaps somewhere, someplace deep inside your being, you have undergone important changes while you were sad.