Write a commentJackie and I arranged to meet in the Canal Court – my favourite place to watch the world go by, but then I panicked. Are we allowed? Can we just sit in the foyer with a coffee? Constant reminders that things are the same but different are all around now.
But it was fine and, aside from not being able to hug, it all felt pretty normal. Except we’re not there yet, are we? March now feels like a very long time ago, but Jackie remembers watching the crisis unfold in her mother’s homeland of Italy all too well. “Every part of me was saying we’re going to be in that position but you don’t want to believe it. It was so horrendous. And then Mother’s Day was the last time I saw my daughter, Leah and my son Matthew. I didn’t see them again until May and it eased and they came to see me. That was lovely. Absolutely lovely. But I kept thinking of all the people that had to make such hard decisions – older people who had to stay in, people with newborns...”
It doesn’t surprise me that Jackie would think of others at a time like this. Her whole life is dedicated to looking after everyone around her, especially those that need it most. Jackie is a Staff Nurse in Southern Area Hospice, which is more a vocation than a job, nursing patients and providing care and support to them and their families. If you have had experience of Hospice, you will know it is about so much more than medical care. She has touched hundreds of lives and kept doing her work through all of lockdown. How has this time been in the palliative setting of the Hospice?
“It was very strange to not have people about. The guidelines were excellent and we were all safe, the Hospice looked after us and the patients but visits were restricted to one hour a day for almost everyone and it was so quiet. I just worried so much about the fundraising and how we were going to cope.”
This year, the Hospice needs to raise over £3 million. A difficult task at the best of times but now, with no fundraising events, no street collections, the Hospice shops closed, it’s been tougher than ever, even with government funding of £10 million between the three hospices in Northern Ireland. Jackie, however, has been amazed at how people have helped.
“People came up with all sorts of novel ways to fundraise – marathons in gardens and the like. The people in the Southern Trust area are phenomenal. It’s very humbling to be a part of that. I’ve never seen so many people coming to the door of the Hospice with gifts of food and PPE and donations. Every day someone brought something. A wee boy bought Easter Eggs for everyone with his pocket money. Another wee girl got her hair cut to fundraise. It was amazing. All the staff worked so hard but it was strange. We didn’t have our volunteers and we really missed them.”
At home, Jackie’s beloved Mother passed away in December so there was a lot happening at the start of the year but Jackie found that lockdown finally gave her the chance to grieve properly and confront the loss of her Mummy. And to help her work through this, Jackie started to write poetry, finding that putting words to her thoughts and thinking about her surroundings really helped. She showed me two of her poems and they are stunning, one about a robin particularly poignant.
What else? “Well just as things were starting to happen, I was interviewed about going to see U2 in the Town Hall in 1980.” It’s a great interview and unlike the six thousand odd people that say they were there, Jackie and her boyfriend (husband-to-be) Fran were two of about the 50 people that went to the show.
And she has walked. Actually, she has walked a lot. Starting with a month-long Walk For Hospice in May, Jackie has covered some ground. She and Fran go for proper big walks lasting hours and now she walks with some of the other Hospice staff, going up and down “my mountain” – that’s Camlough mountain to the rest of us. “I call it my mountain because that’s where we lived. At school we were called the Lynches from the mountain.”
Those Lynches from the mountain have done alright. Jackie’s siblings John and Susan are familiar faces on screen and now Jackie’s daughter Leah has carved out quite a name for herself as Jenny Joyce in Derry Girls. I love Jenny and Leah does a wonderful job. She’s so good! We all recognise her character because every school had a Jenny. I don’t think it was me in ours… Leah is waiting to get back to Derry Girls and working in Fermanagh at a school for performing arts and at a primary school. The O’Rourke women like to stay busy.
In this time of transition, Jackie misses holidays and hugs and she continues to think about those having a hard time. “It just must be so hard to be isolated. And you can be isolated in a full house.” Jackie mentions that Tesco were printing the number for a domestic abuse helpline on receipts which is such a good idea and I’m not surprised that Jackie noticed it.
And what now? What of the future? “This is our way of life now. This is how it’s going to be unless they eradicate it. We just have to learn how to navigate it all.”
In the midst of everything that is happening, so many things are changing, familiar places and services are disappearing but Jackie and the rest of the Hospice staff have been there for the toughest of times, for families and patients that needed the best of care, love and attention. We’re so lucky that this Lynch from the mountain chose to take that path.
Robin
He hops
And studies me
Tiny little wonder
Every day I see him
Red breast ruffled
As he’s blown in the wind
My secret visitor
My Saviour
