Grace O'Connor

And Chris comes down one evening in his shorts and a towel and he says quietly, Mom, I'm going to go to the ice bath.

It's probably 10 o'clock at night.

No one's sleeping.

My poor baby.

I remember him one day.

two days in and he's only eight and I look at him and he's eating chocolate everyone's bringing food that's what everyone brings isn't it and I said James but it's late at night you know you need to stop eating sweets and he just said mom I didn't have a dinner today and I said of course I wasn't yeah I wasn't exactly getting up and even having a shower yeah you know

So someone brought him to McDonagh's and it went on from there.

But, you know, I'm probably going to sleep at four and getting up at six, you know.

So Chris comes down in his shorts and a few of his family was there at the time, James' family, and he says, quietly, Mom, I'm doing the ice bath.

And I said, brilliant.

So someone comes down and they're recording Chris doing it.

And next minute, James's other friend, his limerick friend, Brian, comes over, pops his head in.

He'd been in and out.

He was actually one of the first to know about James.

And he said, I come over for a dip or something like that.

So he's doing it.

Then all James's friends from Cork rocked out.

and my sister and his nieces and nephews.

And it sounds so silly, but it's like I don't know how to explain it because it's whatever gets me through the next moment.

And I'm like, James wanted us all to do this.