Finding Joy

Teresa Mannion is looking forward to seeing her mother again after a year with just two window visits. Family is everything to her and, despite the distance, regular chats have gotten her through the monotony of lockdown, she tells Carissa Casey.

Teresa Manion is relishing some good news. She’s able to visit her mother in her nursing home in Dublin for the first time since the pandemic hit. “Right now, for me, that’s happiness,” she says.

Previously Teresa, who lives in Galway, would visit her mother every second weekend. “I just feel very sad for her that she’s had a year without a hug from any of us. We’re a large family. There are seven of us and we’re very close. We would have had someone going into visit her every day,” she explains.

Over the last year Teresa has only been able to make just two window visits. “I do Facetimes with her. She has dementia so sometimes it’s hard to really connect. Today was good because she was up and she was smiling and laughing and she seemed to recognise me.”

But in person, she still knows family members. “The names come and go but her face lights up when we walk into the day room,” she says. “It’s still very hard not being able to give her a hug but at least for now we can visit.”

It’s one ray of light and Teresa is determined to cherish it. “You always have to look at the positives. I really believe that. I know it’s very cheesy, these gratitude lists, but it makes you stop and think how lucky you are. Every time you go off on crazy benders inside your own head, you have to stop and take a step back and ask yourself ‘is it so bad?’. I haven’t got Covid,  my job is still there. I’m thinking of all the people whose businesses won’t open again, people who’ve died. There are so many tough stories out there. I think we’ll be covering them for a while,” she says.

Working through the pandemic has been both a blessing and a challenge. On the positive side, she’s able to get out and about. “I suppose it’s a little bit easier for me because I’m allowed travel for my job. My area is Galway, Mayo, Sligo and sometimes Donegal. We always have to be careful with social distancing and wiping down the kit after every interview. You have to take extra precautions and you get used to it.”

But she’s also very aware of how tough the lockdown is on so many people. Asked what the mood is like in the west of Ireland, she responds: “People are really utterly jaded and fed up and running out patience. I’ve talked to a lot of people in the hospitality industry. I’ve done a number of reports and they’re just at their wits end. They open and close and open and close. They put all these screens up in pubs and restaurants and then you have to close again. They’re just on their knees.”

She still manages to find happiness amid all this. “In some ways it’s been good in that you get time to draw breath when you’re forced to slow down it’s good. I make sure I go for walks within the 5k restriction. I live near Salthill so it’s great to be able to go down to the prom. I feel very lucky that I have the ocean nearby, that I have a job that I can physically get out and about.”

And there’s always the odd moment, when happiness is easier to come by. “I was in Achill last weekend for work. It was busy and it’s a very long trip, but there were moments when I thought ‘look at this stunning scenery and I’m here’.”

She’s also still buzzing about being able to drive again after a three month recuperation from surgery. A fall left her with a rotator cuff injury. “I was wearing a sling for the last few months, 24/7. I even had to sleep in the thing which was really awful. Aside from physio I had to leave it on all the time. So I’m really excited to be back driving and working again. In a way because it all happened during the lockdown, I didn’t feel I was missing out on too much as I was recuperating. I got to read books with one arm.”

She binge watched The Crown, something she says she never does. “I was sitting with my sling and thinking there’s no guilt. I can’t do anything, I have to rest. I couldn’t lift my arm above my head. I had to put my left hand under my right elbow, to lift that hand. It was really tough but I was determined to get sorted. It’s still not 100% but at least it’s better. You think it’s going to go on forever but here I am back driving.”

Still, the impact of the pandemic is always close at hand. “If you walk around Galway, it’s normally such a vibrant, colourful place. It’s just a ghost town now. It’s sad to walk around the city centre. There are no visitors, no sign of life. I know of course there are gatherings like there are all over the country. But in the main, the campus and the university is empty. The city centre is devoid of people. It’s hard to describe it. It’s joyless.” 

“You’d love a day off. But then the walls close in on you.”

Exercise, she finds, helps a lot. “I love the walk. I don’t do it every day but I try to get out when I can because I have such lovely walks around me.”

“I also have the garage, it used to be the men’s cave but I’ve got rid of their stuff and put in my geriatric exercise bike. It’s so basic. I also have one of those rebounders. I ordered one of those online and it’s great. My dodgy knees don’t notice anything on that. You can put on a bit of Spotify and jump around and feel like you’re sixteen again. It’s actually a great way of getting the blood flowing, even just ten minutes. So I do that, I put the earbuds on and I listen to a playlist or a podcast. I might read a book on the bike - that will show you how fast I cycle. I can go out and do it in my pyjamas in the morning. I don’t have to get ready to go anywhere. If it’s a bad rainy day I still get some exercise in. Sometimes I do 15-20 minutes, sometimes 50 minutes. I just love having that space out in the garage.”

She has also turned to mindfulness. “I won’t lie, I find it very difficult. But if work is really relentless or stressful, I find if I just sit down and breathe and try and take a bit of time out, it helps. I breathe in and hold, and breathe out. It does really just stabilises your breathing. I can myself coming down.”

She’s also tried her hand at sea swimming. “Once you immerse yourself in the water, your body adjusts very quickly,” she promises. “You have this amazing feeling of wellness for ages afterwards. That’s what’s amazing about it.”

“One of my pals arranges for a group of us to go sea swimming when there are full moons. We go to Lady’s Beach in Salthill. It was arctic last time. But we had cocoa afterwards and lit a little bonfire. We had intentions written on pieces of paper and then we put them into the fire. Salthill is nicely lit up anyway and there are little shelters there. It was so lovely to have the bit of craic afterwards.” 

Her female friends are hugely important to her. “Women friends are the best. All my friends and my sisters, they’re all scattered. I miss going to visit my pals. I’d get into the car at the drop of a hat. Some people it takes them ages to organise to go somewhere. I’ve never been like that. I’m very good at just getting up and going. I don’t have young kids anymore so I can do that.

“I miss the road. I can’t believe I’m saying that because it can be quite exhausting when you’re driving for work and driving to see my mam. But now that I’m locked down and housebound I realise I actually quite like being on the road.” 

“So, what I do now is sometimes I have a little wine and ‘drink and dial’ with friends. We all do 

it on Facetime, WhatsApp and Zoom. I have a few younger nieces and nephews and when they’re birthdays come up we generally have these Kahoot quizzes. That’s become a bit hit. We all talk over each other and the screen gets frozen but sure look, it’s a bit of craic,” she says.

She admits the monotony of lockdown life does get to her. “You usually have something to look forward to; a social occasion or a wedding or a party or a weekend away, something on the horizon. All we have is the hope that everyone will get vaccinated by October and by Christmas we’ll be out of the darkness. It’s very hard not having anything definite to work towards.”

In the meantime, she focuses on the positives and being able to visit her mother again.