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| Members of the Maher Clan and friends gather at Mairt's house |
Now
if you’d said to me on my Wedding Day that for my 23rd Wedding anniversary
I’d be going to a local football match, I would have said ‘Forget the whole
thing.’ But you know what? I had a good time. How things change in 23 years.
The
Dublin trip went well, with everything slotting perfectly into place. The Irish
MND Association came up trumps again. Back at the planning stages, I called our
contact there, Tracy, to arrange for equipment loan (this year we needed more
help than last, predictably). She it was who suggested I contact Muscular
Dystrophy Ireland to enquire about the availability of their specially adapted
apartment in Dublin’s pretty Chapelizod area. Unbelievably, they had a room
with PA room attached vacant for seven nights in early August. They ask a
nominal fee per night, per room. Each room is equipped with ceiling hoists,
profiling beds and ensuite wet room. They do their best to make the rooms less
‘hospital’ and more ‘holiday’. The lift can be operated by a wheelchair user
and the kitchen stove can be lowered for those who can cook. Kitchen and living
room area are communal and we shared the facilities with a couple and their
small daughter for the first few days. After that, we had the place to
ourselves due to some cancellations. The place was a Godsend. Originally
intended for people with muscular dystrophy only, it took them 20 years of
fundraising to build. Now it is open to anyone with a neurological condition.
For us it means we know we have a place to stay in Dublin for the foreseeable
future. Chapelizod is an ideal location for us, situated more or less between
the North and South sides of the river Liffey, so equidistant from Maher and
Malone sides of the family.
Roch
and the kids made the annual Maher family trip to the ancestral home in
Tullarone, Co. Kilkenny, the Dublin Maher family get-together was held in
brother Mairt’s house in Clontarf – even the famous poker game took place –
Roch cleaned them out, I’m happy to report! The womenfolk made themselves
scarce on poker night. Kate, Maura and I took the opportunity to go to the
theatre. We chose Tennessee Williams’ ‘A Streetcar named Desire’ at the Gate
theatre. Not a barrel of laughs, it’s true (what can you expect from Tennessee
Williams?) but we couldn’t help identifying with Blanche and her sister, who
were also refugees from the menfolks’ poker game – although our return to
Mairt’s house was a little less dramatic!
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| The menfolk gather for the big game |
The
IMNDA had provided a ramp and also a commode chair for Roch to use in Mairt’s
house. Another anxiety removed and something of a milestone passed (no pun
intended…)
When
our time with the lovely MDI people came to an end (and we could not have felt
more welcomed by them), we moved house to the Gibson Hotel once again, where
the IMNDA had once again come up trumps – a standing hoist was waiting for us
in the room. We didn’t need this piece of equipment there last year but this time around, we
really could not have managed without it. Roch needed it to get off the bed,
the toilet and the shower seat. Just for the record, the Gibson room for
disabled? Perfect.
We
stayed there for three nights and on night two, they kindly sectioned off part
of the bar area for a ‘Gathering’ of our own with friends and family.
As
Roch’s carer, I found our time in the Gibson most relaxing, but overall, just
to get away was refreshing and profounding satisfying to prove that four years
after diagnosis, we are still going back to Dublin in the summer, as we always
did.
Many,
many thanks to the IMNDA and MDI for making it possible – and thanks too, to
Paudie, who shared the driving with me on the way over (we made it by the skin
of our teeth onto the ferry!) and Mairt, who was co-driver on the journey back.
Thanks guys, couldn’t have done it in one day without you.
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