Moments in time you will never forget

Itwasntme.

Witchie wrote: »

Earliest moment in time I remember was getting into my red snow suit and mum telling me not to go too far down the garden coz the snow was taller than me and I might get lost and freeze to death. I was 2 and a bit living in Edmonton, Canada.

The day I got my puppy Buffy. I was 10 years old and we had been minding my granny's pomeranian for a week while she moved house. We were bringing cuddles back to her new home and my heart was breaking. I was hugging her and telling her I loved her and was gonna miss her. Carried her into the kitchen and saw this tiny ball of fluff lying under the breakfast bar. I dropped cuddles and ran over to investigate and granny told me that was my puppy. She lived for 18 years and died while I was at college but not before giving me her successor, Cleo who also lived for 18 years.

The day my mum pulled up beside the school bus just before it drove off and beeped the horn like mad. I legged it off and she pulled in bursting to tell me the news. She was just back from Belfast and a specialist appointment where she had gotten the results of the amniocentesis and the baby was perfectly fine and a girl. She was 45 and I was 17 and it was the purest happiness I had experienced. When my sister was born I knew what life was about and from that moment on I knew being a mammy was why I was born.

3 years later I came home from college and said I needed to talk to mum. She said "you're pregnant aren't you". I nodded. She got up took me kn her arms and told me she loved me and everything would be fine. Moments later I heard my dad arriving home and said I couldn't tell him and fled to my room. A few mins later he knocked on the door and came in. He hugged me so hard and told me it would be ok and how much he loved me.

A few months later when I put my hand down between my legs and felt my sons matted curls just before he slid into the world I understood for the first time how much my parents loved me coz even if it was a quarter of the love I felt for my little boy then it must be all consuming.

A few years later I was blessed again. I went into labour one night in August and went up to the sitting room where the hubby was watching a movie. I was a bit concerned coz I wasn't due for another month and we were an hour and a half away from the hospital. We were discussing things and about to go get our eldest out of bed to make the trek to the rotunda when the movie he was watching was interrupted for a news flash. Princess Diana had been in a crash. We watched in shock for a few minutes then as my pains came back we grabbed son 1and bags and headed for the car. We had only gone about a mile and there was a garda checkpoint. They asked where we were going and we explained. Then they started chatting about Diana and held us for what was probably only a minute but felt like hours to me. We headed on and as we came into Dublin we met another checkpoint and were stopped again. We explained where were going but when we said where we had come from the guards started asking if we knew such and such a person from Monaghan, then moved on to topic of Diana. Eventually I pointed out to them that a baby was on its way and I needed to get to the hospital. Just as we left my inlaws house from leaving our wee man off they announced Diana's death. I went to the hospital and was in labour all day. Then it just stopped. Fecker didn't come out til the 7th off October.

Sporting moments for me.....biggest disappointment was being beaten in Bray on penalties so Monaghan United didn't get promoted. This was made a million times worse by getting hurt in a collapsing wall at the game and seeing my son get hurt.

Best sporting moment. .....beating Galway United in play offs and the look on Roddys face when we won promotion.

Worst moment. ....the death of our LOI dreams.

TLDR..... Puppies, babies and football.

Attack of the ninja onions! Onions everywhere!

banie01

Being at the Ireland v Italy match in '94, I remember Houghton scoring....
Then I'm missing @2days but in that black interim!
I made it to Orlando(No Idea how tho!) But I was well minded! haha
My 1st proper concert, The Final trip to Tipp with backstage/VIP passes!
Just realised.... '94 was an awesome year for me!
Can't imagine letting 1 14/15y.o off on jaunts like that these days.....

Meeting my future wife in '96,
I asked her out without ever even seeing her!
Me and a group of mates were hanging around outside one of our houses.....
And I heard the most beautiful laugh in the world coming from behind a van.
So I sent my friends GF over to find out who laughed...
And to ask her to 'go away' with me The innocence of youth! haha!!!
That night after our 1st kiss and cuddle I went back to my bestfriend and told him...
"I just met the girl I'm going to spend the rest of my life with!"
2 weeks later I told her I loved her......and I never looked back!


I've posted about most of these moments before, but here goes.
Nothing of global import, but important to me!

Finding out my partner was pregnant...
She was working night shift at the time and told me she was going shopping after she finished work.
So anyway I was in bed asleep when she got home and I heard sobbing from the sitting room, I won't lie....
I thought she was maybe upset because BT's didn't have the shoes she wanted so I initially pulled the quilt over my head and contemplated grabbing another 5 mins before I got up to check she was ok....
I walked into the sitting room and asked her whats wrong?
She looked up at me with red eyes, and said ''I'm pregnant!''
I said, ''Yeah, but whats wrong?''
She looked at me and said ''I was all worried about telling you, in case you wanted to move abroad again!''(We'd lived away for @3yrs)
I held her, called her a muppet and said ''Kate, we are together 8yrs! A baby isn't a bloody surprise and sure at this stage its **** or get off the seat''
Funnily enough when we told her folks, her Dad looked at me and said ''About time!, I thought you were firing blanks at this stage!''

When our son was Born
Kate had to have a GA for a caesarean section and I saw and held our son before she did...
The nurse asked me ''Do you want to hold your child?''
She never told me if it was a boy or a girl.... And then she handed me a pink wrinkly lump in a green baby gro!
I had to open the Babygro and peek in the nappy to check whether I'd a son or daughter! :P


When she collapsed at home 3 and a half years later....
We were waiting on a cab to head into town and do some post Bday shopping with our son.
But the plans fell by the wayside, the Paramedics fought so so hard to give her a chance but even though they restarted her heart,
It was over, I knew when they wheeled her to the ambulance that she was gone....
That all our hopes and dreams were gone too.
The whole time in hospital was a blur apart from one thing....
I remember sitting in the waiting room of the intensive care ward of Limerick Regional waiting for my partner to die and everyone to say their goodbyes..., When my father in law started a conversation with me about the funeral arrangements
He turned to me and said the 1st few lines of a WH Auden poem, and then said 'I know she was even more to you Son, I'm sorry you've lost her but thanks for the life you gave her, she was happy!
That week is a blur to me and I'll be honest its one of the few lucid memories I have of what was a nightmare time.
I still can't believe that the man who gave me his daughter,His little girl, the apple of his eye and trusted that I'd love and look after her always, a girl who's smile was the measure of my own happiness....
I still can't can't believe that when he knew he'd lost her, that we'd lost her...
He took the time to say that to me!
I hope I never have to find out if I'm strong enough to take his part in a similar conversation should something similar ever happen our son!
I love my Father in Law.....
One of the strongest men I know

At my wife's funeral mass, aside from my shock at the sheer numbers of people attending and surprise at seeing people who'd travelled thousands of miles to get there to support us and say goodbye.

Our son asked me what the priest was doing.
So I explained it to him as best I could in a way that a 3 y.o would understand.
Imagine explaining transubstantiation during communion and other mumbo jumbo to a child without it sounding like a magic trick?
Anyways towards the end of the mass, my son was in my arms and as the priest was returning the chalice and bits to the sacristy....
My son turns round to me and says....
''Dad, I'm not sure I want to come here anymore because thats the stupidest magic show I've ever seen''.....
It mightn't have been the most appropriate time or place....
But every single one of us who heard it, had a laugh at that one!

shane9689

still young, so i dont have any of the mad life changing "I HAD A BABY" stories...atleast i hope i wont have one of those for another while...

getting my finger stuck to the ice at the back of the fridge when i was cleaning it out...cant remember if it was my dad or brother, but someone poured boiling water over it to unstick it....such a bad experience haha.

sitting on a branch high up in a tree (age like 12) and landing right between the legs on a wall below with me still holding onto the branch...the branch between my legs must have broken my fall because that was a really high branch and i got away with just afew bruises

driving quadbikes with little regulation across Moroccan countryside and beaches, first time ever driving a motor vehicle, crashed twice haha nearly smashing myself into the ground but it was Morocco so no one cared about safety for mad 18 year olds XD

first proper concert ever was metallica in about 08' or 09' or something...never ever forget that

camping with strangers

swimming with fungi without having taking a tour or boat....came across him by accident and decided to run into the water after him, a local boat driver brought fungi over to me by driving closer to me...it was pouring rain and freezing cold but i didnt care


soooo many other experiences, still young. who knows whats next...

Togepi

Going to cut it down to one summer in particular which stands out (aged 15):

Soon after my mam told me my dad had a check up at the hospital, seeing him looking up information about what I thought was cancer online as I glanced at the computer screen on my way past. Enough time had passed for Mam to have told me the usual "he got on grand" for me to have already started worrying, so when I saw that, I had to take a moment to sit outside and recover from the shock, then pray/hope it was anything but cancer (could barely allow myself to even think the word), despite not being religious.

Me and my brother being told after we had finished our exams, that he had cancer. Our parents didn't tell us because it would have worried us during our Junior and Leaving Certs. Never told them that I had been almost certain of it since the above day in April/May, and had been more worried than I've ever been to date (though I'm still only in my teens).

The atmosphere in the house all that summer, and the two or three days I went off to visit relatives and forgot about the whole thing for a short time. Was the best thing I could've done. (Learned a lot from that.)

Wanting to tell a friend about it all summer but not being able to bring myself to do so with any of them. (Learned from that since too!)

Going to a sleepover with said friends at the end of the summer, a day or two before my dad's operation, because I knew it'd be a necessary distraction, and throwing my earphones in and turning away while they, oblivious to my situation, watched an extremely sad movie about a terminally-ill person (bar one who thankfully decided to join me and didn't watch it either). Tough night. Had a lot of laughs throughout it too though to distract myself from everything.

Two days later, the news "Dad got through the operation".

And finally, the news that he no longer had cancer. He's in very good health now too.

Not bottling things up anywhere near as much from that point onwards, and continuing to learn from my mistakes as I grow up.

Jijsaw

Amerika wrote: »

Organizing a blood drive for the local hospital that was designated to handle the overflow of causalities from the 9/11 terror attack in NYC, and later calling the hospital for further instructions on what to do and was told… "Thanks for your efforts but there’s no need... There are no survivors."

And on a lighter note... The time George Harrison gave me the finger after a concert.

Can't highlight at the moment because I'm on my phone but tell more about the George Harrison encounter

Vladimir92

johnny_knoxvile wrote: »

my musical idol randomly asking me on Facebook to meet him for pint because he was in Dublin.

who was it?

paddy147

The time Enda Kenny cried in public on TV.....the the 2nd time,then the 3rd time.



An oscar worthy moment or 3.......:pac::rolleyes:

old hippy

Since we can include political interludes, I'd just like to say - watching George Osborne getting booed at by 80 thousand people made the Olympics even better than I could have dreamed

pharmaton

First time with a guy
Holding my daughter for the first time
Getting on a plane with my daughter and leaving Ireland forever.
My dad telling me he had cancer and it wasn't good.
Being at his bedside when he took his last breath.
First time with a girl.
9/11

I'd be here all day.

wil

Three world events I recall that had some effect on me are 9/11, the Omagh bombing and the killing of the 2 British army by a mob during a riot.

Others more personal are mostly firsts.
First day at school, wrecking it, didnt want to be there
first time seeing a shooting star.
first kiss on a clear mountain dawn
First sight of a smiling poet born
First Flying Leap Hug best memory forever
First words on the birth of my daughter
First steps first laughs first fall
First time you didnt call
Last breath of a mothers only grandson
first tear of last's yet to come.

DazMarz

Most of these are sporting moments, but they meant a lot to me and I'll remember them 'til I die:

-Being there for the first All Ireland Football Final played in Croke Park with the new Cusack Stand. Watching as Dublin lifted their first All Ireland since 1983 (and their last until 2011). Being in amongst the last crowd (officially) able to invade the pitch. Being right below a young Jason Sherlock as he was hoisted onto men's shoulders, barely out of his teens, but a hero to so many. I was only 7 that day, but I will never, ever forget it. One of those moments from your childhood that you have a perfect memory of. This is one of those. That balmy Sunday in September of 1995. I was there.

-Stephen Cluxton points in the 71st minute to put Dublin 1 point ahead of Kerry in the 2011 All Ireland Football Final. For 16 years, Dublin had promised so much, but delivered no All Ireland Title. A plethora of Leinster titles, so many memorable hammerings and defeats at the hands of Kerry/Tyrone/Meath/Cork, and so many missed chances and "what ifs". All gone and banished in an instant as Clucko's 45-metre free sailed high over the bar at the Hill 16 end of Croke Park and Dublin were All Ireland Champions again for the first time in a generation.

-Ireland's Grand Slam Triumph of 2009. I can still remember watching that in a dingy bar of a 3rd rate hotel where I had been playing poker for the last 16 hours. We stopped to watch the match. My god. The sweating that was done throughout that game and the praying. Ronan O'Gara cemented his place as a national treasure that day. Victory that day was so, so sweet. Broke my hand on a table slamming it just as that final Welsh drop-goal attempt fell short and Ireland were all but home.

-Chelsea winning the Champions League in 2012. I had been there to see Chelsea win league titles. I had seen Chelsea lifting the FA Cup. Every other trophy. But never the Holy Grail. Never the European Cup (or Champions League). And I didn't think I would. So many times, so close yet so far. But nobody had told Didier Drogba. He scored that crucial equaliser in the final to send the game to extra time. And of course, with his final kick of a ball for Chelsea Football Club, a club for whom he had scored 157 goals in his 8 years, he placed his penalty into the bottom corner and Chelsea were the Champions Of Europe.

-Leinster demolishing Munster, the defending champions, in the Heineken Cup semi-final in 2009. I will never forget the moment when Brian O'Driscoll (Irish legend, national treasure, hero, in BOD we trust) intercepted a Munster pass and powered down the length of the pitch in the 61st minute to score Leinster's third try and to put the game beyond all doubt. It was in that moment, you felt that Leinster would reach the promised land...

-3 weeks later, against the Leicester Tigers, they did. Jonny Sexton's 70th minute penalty being all that separated the teams after 80 minutes and giving Leinster their first of 3 Heineken Cups in 4 years. Heroic.

-Katie Taylor's triumph in London last year. I think the whole country was watching her as she fought her three bouts to get the Olympic Gold. The British Natasha Jones was her fancied rival in her quarter final, but Katie was better than her and the Tajikistan fighter Mavzuna Chorieva in the semi-final. The biggest test lay in wait in the final. The Russian fighter, Sofiya Ochigava. She clearly fancied herself too, and gave Katie the fight of her life. It was nervous as the result was being waited on. The Russian was full of pose and posturing, indicating she thought she had won. But the referee lifted Katie's hand aloft. Katie collapsed to her knees with joy. I had tears in my eyes watching it. Ireland's first Olympic Gold in more than a generation and a huge lift to the entire nation.

maybe there's some other nonsense in my life that meant something (marriage, divorce, kids, etc.) but the above are the ones I'll always remember.