By Claire Corrigan
Paddy Greene from Killucan has been announced as this year’s Westmeath Carer of the Year. Paddy cares for his wife Olive who suffers from frontotemporal dementia and has to be fed, clothed and cared for. Paddy received an award for all the remarkable care he provides to his wife at an event last Friday in Ballymahon.
Speaking to Topic about his daily routine, Paddy said: “I normally I get up around 9am and get the kitchen ready for breakfast. We have porridge and stuff for breakfast so that’s the first job. Then I get Olive out of bed and get her washed and dressed and so on and feed her her breakfast. She’s non-verbal so she can’t speak, read or write. All that is gone, unfortunately.”
Paddy said he was shocked when he was chosen to be Westmeath Carer of the Year.
“I’m sure there are other carers that are doing a lot more for their loved ones than I am. I’m honoured.”
The Cork native and GAA fan said that when his brother found out, he rang him to say that while the Rebel County hadn’t much success in recent years in hurling or football, the award went some way in compensating.
Reminiscing on when he first met Olive during the swinging ’60s, Paddy said he still remembers it was a Friday. “Friday the 13th of October, 1961, in the National Ballroom in Dublin.”
Paddy, who was in his final year at teaching training college in Drumcondra, said luck had more than a little bit to do with the pair meeting. ”
She had planned to visit an aunt of hers that night but the aunt wasn’t home so she turned on her heels and went back to where she was staying and a friend persuaded her to go to the dance. I was out for a walk with friends for the training college and I had to be persuaded to go too, because being a student, I didn’t have a lot of money.”
He was immediately struck by the pretty young woman. “She had been educated in France and had spent time working in Washington DC and had a different accent I’d say. I asked her out to dance and she said yes and that was it.”
The pair got engaged in 1964 and married in 1966, going on to have four children – Dermot, Elaine, Judith and Kenneth.
“It was bone of contention for a while because we had agreed that we would get married. She always said, ‘Some day you’re going to have to get down on your knee and propose, even when we were married, just to make things official.”
In 1966 Paddy taught briefly in Olive’s hometown of Raharney at the national school. “She didn’t want me to take up the job because she didn’t want people to know we were doing a line. Olive is a private person and she was embarrassed to think that everyone would know that she was doing a line with one of the teachers!” He laughed.
Following his stint in Raharney, he became Principal of Edmonton National School. 15 years later he became Principal of Rathwire National School where he stayed for the following 26 years until he retired in 2004.
Despite the rule back in 1966 that when any young woman got married, she had to resign from her job, Olive continued on working right up until she became unwell. “She worked in various jobs. When we met she worked in the Irish Hospitals’ Sweepstake, which was a secretarial type job. Following this she worked in Bracklyn where they had a pedigree herd of cattle and then did a similar job with pedigree pigs in Rathwire.”
After that she worked in Westmeath Topic and subsequently moved on to follow her passion for cooking and began working at Fraynes on Mount Street for a number of years. Finally she worked in Mullingar Community College as a secretary and retired from there in 2004. “Her condition attacked her verbal skills so she had difficult finding words and, as a secretary, an important part of her job would be answering the phone.”
Paddy said his wife always had a busy life and was involved with various community groups. “She was a member of the ICA, the apostolic class, founding member of the Killucan Canoe Club and the Killucan Scouts as well as a founding member and cook with the Killucan Golden Years Club.”
Paddy said Olive’s symptoms seemed to creep up on the pair. “I look at her now and 10 or 15 years ago, she would be saying, ‘Don’t be talking about me’. Because she was involved in so many things, 99 per cent of phone calls to the house were for her, so I wouldn’t even bother to hear it,” he joked.
As the illness developed, Olive would hand the phone over to husband more and more. “She couldn’t find the words to answer the person on the other end. In 2004, she lost her ability to speak and she cannot talk at all, which is a bit sad because she loved the chat. I was constantly talking as a teacher, so when I came back, I just wanted to shut up, so most of the conversation was from her.”
He says that it was quite difficult to come to grips with Olive’s illness. “There were a lot of tears shed but it’s amazing what you’ll get used to. I speak to her like I always did, hoping that some day a miracle will happen and she’ll answer. Hope springs eternal.”
He praised the carers that help Olive day to day alongside Paddy. “They are very, very professional. They are brilliant.”
When Topic asks how long he has cared for his wife, he replies, “We’ve been looking after each other since the year we got married in 1966. I’m not on my own.”
Patrick will be attending the national Carer of the Year award in the Westin Hotel, Dublin, on November 16, where one carer will be chosen as the national Carer of the Year.
