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As I sit on a home-colored patchwork sofa, I hold a tall white mug decorated with pink flowers, the prettiest mug anyone could own – fit for a queen and certainly a mug that could only belong to the house in the that I feel while writing. this.
It’s like being in a house in the Ireland of yesteryear. I’m sitting next to a cozy and hot Stanley kitchen with buckets of grass on either side. The woman who rests her eyes on the couch in front of me is a century and seven years old and is glowing brightly.
The clock ticks loudly in the background (along with three other clocks in this room) as my grandmother, Nancy Stewart, winks in the afternoon, as she calls them . She is not really asleep.
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Louise and her grandmother Nancy
As she moves her hands back and forth between the rosary beads, I see her opening one eye to see if I’m still sitting in position. I ask her if she is tired. She says “no, I’m just lazy”.
What a great response from a woman who has lived on this planet since 1913. I think you are allowed to be a bit lazy after all you have contributed to the world at this stage.
Can you even begin to imagine what your eyes have seen in your life? She has been here so long that I cannot even fathom what her eyes have seen and her ears have heard on this ever-changing planet.
We are in the second half of lockdown number two here in Ireland as part of the never-ending nightmare of the Covid-19 virus. Nancy, also known to me as ‘Granny’, has been my company since March.
I’ve been with her night, noon, and tomorrow since our worlds changed earlier this year and there’s no way I’m forgetting this time I’ve been given to spend so close to Granny.
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Louise and Granny laugh
Like everyone else, this has been a very unusual and intense moment for me. But it has also been magical. In an age when the world has been scared and scared, Granny and I have sat together like two old ladies spending time eating, drinking, chatting, baking, praying, singing, taking a nap and my most favorite part, laughing.
It is as if we are women in wartime, albeit without men fighting (we laugh at the lack of husbands in our lives, another shared ground, another shared giggle).
During the lockdown, we do not discuss how the war is going (Covid, that is), nor do we ask ourselves what we can contribute to it. No, instead we stay warm and welcoming inside her little brown door sipping tea and sharing our lives.
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Louise Coghlan pictured with her 107-year-old grandmother Nancy Stewart at their home in Clonard Co. Meath. Photograph by Gerry Mooney
I know many are devastated to be isolated from the outside world, but we don’t even miss it. The grandmother is very happy at her home in Clonard, Co Meath, where she has lived since the day she married her beloved Bob in 1937.
Sadly, Bob was killed in a car accident while going to church in town in 1989. Surprisingly Granny has never lost faith, another aspect of her endurance and personal strength that reminds me that anything is possible when your mindset is on the move. His heart was broken but his spirit was not.
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Grandma Nancy with her beloved late husband Bob on their wedding day in 1937
The grandmother had six children: Finian, Kathleen, Margaret, Anne, Mary, and my mother, Olive. He lost his twin daughters, Margaret in 2007 from a long battle with motor neuron disease, and Anne in 2010 from the utter anguish of losing her sister.
It has not been easy for Grandma in any way and over the years, she has lost not only many of her family members, but also many of her dear friends.
On a positive note, she has been blessed with 84 grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren and loves them all deeply.
Grandma loves to be at home, in her big armchair, and in her company I am like a little girl who gets excited about her mentality. As she says : “I don’t miss going out very much because I’m not like everyone else running and running and chasing the clock. No, instead I’m saying my prayers and drinking tea, sure I have a great life. ”
I have adopted your motto and have been very happy to say my prayers and drink tea.
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Louise Coghlan pictured with her 107-year-old grandmother Nancy Stewart at their home in Clonard Co. Meath. Photograph by Gerry Mooney
My job was lost from the beginning as I work with older people and teach them how to use their smartphones. Like the rest of the country, I look forward to my job return, but for now I am happily taking care of Granny and learning to live life without wanting too much and settling my soul in a place of joy and tranquility.
The clock keeps ticking and the day progresses and Nancy remains calm and happy in her big black chair. We chat about times past, times present, and even times to come. She is as wise as Buddha and as funny as Charlie Chaplin.
She, like me, is a Libra and has a balanced focus not only on her point of view, but also on her being. She believes in two sides of every story and is true to her own motto of never fighting people.
“If they bother you, just smile and let them continue Louise,” he says with a cute wink. “I would never fight with anyone. I just wouldn’t chase them. Let them think they are right and then peace will remain within you. Life is too short to fight or be in a bad mood. “
She is a lady who does not I don’t believe in complaining either. It’s all in your way of thinking and, most importantly, in your heart. Not a day goes by when he doesn’t laugh, doesn’t see the positive in the world, and doesn’t say ‘thank God’ for this, and for that, and the other 50 times before breakfast.
She is an exceptional lady and I have not only been blessed that she is a part of my family tree. but I have come to realize that she is my best friend, my spirit guide and luckily I have to enjoy and survive the 2020 blockages with her and everything else.
It’s a special moment . I will never forget this moment in my life and of course it is by no means over. I’m not going anywhere and neither is she, thank God, but I felt it was important to write and share this magical experience with you.
My grandmother is the oldest lady living in her own home in Ireland and for that alone I am very honored to sit with her, never mind loving her and drinking lots of tea with her. So what is Grandma Nancy’s secret to such a long and loving life? ? We regularly discuss this ourselves. , and it always comes back to the same four tips.
She believes that not stressing out is a big part of her long life. She says too many people are stressed, especially in 2020, and all too often it’s about things and things that we can’t control.
Number two, she believes deeply and loves good food. He eats three serious meals a day, all at the same time and all made up of the same types of food every week. A good breakfast (Weetabix, toast and tea), a traditional Irish dinner (meat, vegetables and potatoes) and its consumption at tea time … wait for it … (Could all the nutritionists look away now …) is a fried five nights a week. Yes, sausages, puddings, and the much-loved fried bread, downed with a big cup of tea, of course.
She eats fish two days a week and Grandma Nancy believes that good food is what has kept her so well for 107 years on this planet.
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Grandma attributes her long life to good food
His third tip is more spiritual, more emotional.: having faith and believing in something bigger than us here on earth is a big part of their story. Believing that being good is always the right choice and doing your best to act on that belief is what he attributes his long life to.
The final tip it’s friendship and a great cup of tea. No matter the question, tea is always the answer, and it sure won’t taste half as nice on its own. – company is key to a good cup of Barry’s.
I could read all the books in all the libraries and I wouldn’t learn as much as in an hour spent with Grandma Nancy Stewart.
No book could light my heart like her. No book could inspire me to find the positive in the world when it seems quite complicated at times. No book could turn my smile upside down with a glint of its glowing left eye.
No book could put within me the desire to be a better me, the desire for a better, fairer and kinder world.
No book could let me push beyond myself to be a better human. No book like osmosis could share the wisdom beyond this world and a time when there were no cars, no computers, no telephones, not a light bulb in sight.
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Granny Nancy (lower right) with her mother and siblings.
This is all from Nancy Stewart and more. Describing Grandma Nancy is beyond my ability. To explain the magic that is within his heart and the magic that is within his body. She is my dear grandmother and my best friend.
I always knew I was special, and for me to survive the lockdown with such optimism and hope, I will be eternally grateful that I had this time to observe, listen to and learn from my own Buddha, my own guru..
In life these moments do not happen too often and for most of us we do not take the time to enjoy them, but this time, the gift of time was given to me and I am more than grateful.
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