I'm usually pretty good with dates, and have been thinking about events gone by as anniversaries come along - so I was genuinely surprised last night when a friend asked if it was the anniversary of the ball this weekend. Indeed, it is... I hadn't forgotten, as such, more that we hadn't thought it.
There is so much detail that still remains fresh - many people forget that the day actually began with "Katy's Big Coffee Morning". I remember the weather was pretty the same as today to start with (pretty awful) and that the sheer amount of people there was totally overwhelming. I also remember that, as I sat counting up various big piles of cash, that we had a visit from a guy who had done a fundraising bike ride with some friends and they "had some left over" and wanted to donate it. That in itself would have made it an awesome day - but this was, for many other reasons as well, the most awesome of days. I then remember having to track down a prize for the raffle which meant that I got a strangely memorable trip to work on a Saturday. Memorable in as much that it gave me half-an-hour to reflect on the day so far and what was to come. I still kind of miss the rush of adrenalin that came with all of the events.
I could do a whole blog on memories from the ball - there were so many things that happened then that still make us smile. Not least sitting with new friends when the auction was raining money - thinking crikey, what is happening here. However, and this is strange to say when talking about a fundraising event that defied our wildest targets (probably tripling or even quadrupling our original expectation...), but it wasn't about the money. It confirmed that we should do this, gave us hope that we would, and confidence that we could.
So, how did we forget about it being a year since. How was this day amongst days not a cause for celebration, a day marked on the calendar ?
Well, it's been a year... and we have fit a lot into it, but just when you think you could with a rest, and that the world might just stop spinning at 100 miles-hour, more stuff comes along - and this week, something clicked. As well as Evan is doing - and, as predicted by Dr Park - he is indeed walking independently, it was a little stacatto. Left foot forward, right foot brought alongside, pause, left foot forward, right foot brought alongside, repeat.... However, his news on return from school on Tuesday was that he had walked 198 steps as part of his PT, and that these were more left foot forward, right foot brought just ahead, left foot ahead of that, right foot ahead of that, repeat. Proper steps, I guess.... I did ask why he had only done 198 (that was great but 200 was a nice round number) and Ev simply explained; "well, I had reached my desk". Why walk more than you need to... We were still recovering from this when, on Wednesday, we got the news that he had managed to do 292 steps. (I didn't ask where the other 8 were...). Today, we went swimming and he even stood up in the "little pool" and walked a few steps there.
The Ball will always be a massive part of Evan's Big Journey, but that was the past and, with massive thanks to that, Evan is writing his own future now.
