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Newry woman Ann Blair says that she has won the lottery twice, first with the parents she had and then with her husband! In 2020 life changed for them both when husband Tony was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Tony, 58 had worked for the same firm for 40 years. One day he went to work just like any other day but he took ill with a brain tumor.
Ann explains "That was in May 2020. He got his operation and the outcome of that was he was stage four, so the fact that I still have him now is an absolute miracle, It was a very difficult time. The two of us have been together from we were 19."
The couples back garden was just a bare concrete space and not an ideal place for Tony to sit out so Ann thought about landscaping it but found it just too expensive. Meanwhile Ann's sister Maria had heard about a group of volunteers who were setting up a community growing project and thought that they might be great people for her to meet.
Ann said "Well from the minute that I met them, they say that people come into your life for a reason and you go into their life for a reason - they were the nicest people. I would call them my tribe. They thought the way that I thought, everything about life and about nature and about taking care of people, they were the loveliest people."
The group were Green Spaces Community Growing Project based in Warrenpoint and volunteer with the group Roisin Murray Gibbons explains how they got involved. "Anne had said that her husband was poorly, she was wanting to do the garden over for them and their grandchildren, but obviously because of his health, nothing could happen.
"I chatted to the volunteers first and said wouldn't it be a lovely idea if we did this thing for Ann. She had got a quote of several thousand pounds, just for the actual design, so I went round and asked everybody and they said yes, absolutely 100%."
They decided to start in July 2022 and Roisin approached Declan McElherron from J.P Corry and Alan Davis from Forest Wood for help and without hesitation they donated the wood and materials. The Green Spaces team of about a dozen volunteers then spent every week working on the project throughout the summer.
Roisin said "Tuesdays and Fridays that's how we spent our summer, just literally pulling the place apart and starting from ground up, painting the walls, fence, concrete, everything. All this here, as you can see, wasn't here before. Then we chatted to Ann about what she wanted from the garden, and we then put together a selection of planting plans. She wanted something which was going to be great for the pollinators, something which is going to be low maintenance, because going forward, things are going to be tough."
Ann provided the food while they provided the labour. The work was completed in mid September resulting in a beautiful garden transformation. Speaking on her new garden Ann said "It was like going into a different country, Portugal or somewhere else because of the plants and the colours. It just transformed my garden and it transformed my life. It was life changing for me really, the fact that those people would come up out of their daily lives, and all that was going on with their lives, they'd come up rain, hail or really strong sun and work in my garden and toil, and would give up their time to do that."
It was a two way process as Roisin explains "We got so much out of it ourselves because it meant that we as a group were able to support each other, meeting up on a regular basis and the fact that we knew Ann was getting so much out of it and will in the coming months and years"
Volunteer Paddy McBride also got much satisfaction out of it "Absolute satisfaction and a great way to show off the skills an amateur can share with other people." he added
The volunteers had just moved from another organisation that closed over the summer a time that was quite traumatic for them leaving a lot of them feel very much in limbo. "It gave us the opportunity to spend those couple of months doing something wonderful for somebody else, but it also helped us to heal. It was it was a real real cathartic process."
Ann has been volunteering all her life in different agencies, a year here and a year there. Something she emphasises to young people is that you don't always have to get compensated monetary wise for what you do. "There's lot of people in life for all different reasons, and I would say they live in their own heads and because of that they don't give anything back. I was listening to something on Radio Four a while back about the art of giving, doing a wee bit of charity work something voluntary. What you get back in return is even more than what you give out. What the agency that you're working for, volunteered for get, you also get something. It's like doing exercise and that hormone you get from regular exercise, you will get something from that, so do it."
The garden has allowed Ann to sit at the new outside table chatting to her friends while keeping depression at bay while Tony got out when he could.
Ann concludes "Any good days there was he was out, and that was just amazing for me to see, because I'm at the stage now of having as little regrets as possible and doing the most I can do for him. I can look back and I can say I got to do that with him. He is such a good man. I would say that I won the lottery twice really, with the parents that I had and then with my husband. Everything from his hands and his mouth was for me and the children. So I say to the children You won the lottery once with the Father that you have."
Green Spaces Community Growing Project meet at 44 Moygannon Road every Tuesday. The organisation is a community-based growing and wellbeing project promoting and facilitating exchange of knowledge, skills, ideas, training, support and advice on all aspects of horticulture, sustainability and biodiversity.
This weekend Saturday 3 December they have a Christmas Floral and Craft Demonstration at Warrenpoint Methodist Hall, Church Street, Warrenpoint from 10am to 1pm. All are welcome. See Christmas floral and craft demonstration for more.
