February 8th, 2011 by Conor
About a week into our time spent at the hospital a lady approached me while I was, you guessed, working on my computer. I don’t remember her name or her story but I recognized her as a regular- people on the ICU floor become familiar quickly. Our conversation wasn’t all that long or memorable about anything in particular, but one part of it stuck out. I had just gotten through an explaining our situation with Danny and that we had already been there a whole week- a week that felt a lot more like a year or two. When I asked her how long she had been there she said a month. I couldn’t even fathom how someone could possibly be mentally stable and still coming up to the ICU floor for a month! The conversation fizzled out and she headed off somewhere. I struggled to get back to work as I tried to wrap my head around two main feelings.
1) How could Danny and all of our friends and family last a month feeling the roller coaster of emotions that we had felt that week?
2) I was about to find out, because this process wasn’t going to be quick and there was no way Danny was going to give up his fight.
Sure enough, Danny made it. I made it. Our family made it. All of our friends made it. People from all over the world-many of which we have never met, they all made it too. And what a journey it was. I can hardly believe that I am about to leave Great Falls, Montana. By tomorrow evening my Mom, Dad and Danny will all be back in New Hampshire, and Michelle and I will be far away from Montana but not quite close enough to California. We will all be very very happy to be out of here.
As I sit here typing my final post from Montana I can’t believe that time passed so quickly. The minutes turned to hours, the hours to days, the days to weeks and sure enough, the weeks into a month. Looking back on my conversation with the lady I find it hard to believe that I actually made it one month.
As of today 22,294 different people were touched at some point or another by Danny’s story just on this website alone. When I first created the site I did so because of the overwhelming support that I was getting on the phone. So much in fact that I really couldn’t deal with it all. As much as I wanted to speak to each and every one of you it just wasn’t really physically possible. When I first posted about the event online my voicemail filled to capacity in an hour. Everyone that I did talk to wanted to be updated. I had to kindly tell them that I would do my best but that it was going to be nearly impossible. How could I keep everyone in the loop? One that was fair to everyone and exclusive to no one. There it was, Danny Is The Bomb. I sure am happy that I did it too because looking at the numbers It wouldn’t have been possible to continue on my phone attempt. If I had spent as much time on the phone as people have spent on this website I would literally have to have been on my phone for 211 days around the clock. It blows my mind how many people came to this website. It truly does.
This website has been wonderfully therapeutic to me throughout the whole process. Although I rarely, if ever, responded to comments people posted or the submissions to the website, I can assure people that I read every single word that is on this site. Every word on here helped me get through this process and without you all this nightmare would have been way worse. So, Thank You, to each and every single one of you that stepped up and contributed to making this site work.
Don’t worry, the site is being shut down, or discontinued but for me, a large chapter in this book will close when I hit the road tomorrow. I won’t see Danny and my Mom or Dad for a few weeks and it sure is going to be hard to write about Danny the way that we have been simply based on phone calls. That’s not to say I wont chime in with some thoughts here or there, but my involvement in the day to day knowings of Danny is going to change significantly tomorrow.
I will be there for Danny in a few short weeks and in the meantime my parents will be by his side. I certainly encourage everyone around North Conway, New Hampshire, to visit Danny whenever he is up for the company. It is your turn to finally get to spend some time with him. You have all been there through this whole process step by step and Danny needs you all now more than ever. If you don’t feel it’s appropriate to visit then bring him by some nice meal or some candy (he had been feening candy lately).
Thank you EVERYONE. We all worked together to support each other through this process. It was the longest month of my life but looking back it still somehow passed pretty quickly. I look forward to giving each and everyone of you an EPIC hug at some point whenever I see you in person. It sure is going to be nice to start to see you all in person again. Until then, I am off on the next journey. I have to imagine that there are some good ones coming up because after making it through this just about anything else is going to feel like a total blast.
I love you all for stepping up and making this happen. People sure can be awesome. You all just proved that. Danny just proved that.
Good night from Great Falls. Good luck on your adventure Danny. You got this.
~Conor
