OUR STORY
Dear friends, Georgina here. This is the story of Forever Therapies.
Now let’s step back in time to the 80s, to be exact, 1987. If you were in your 20s, you may have been gracing the dance floor wearing your gold sparkly outfit with those larger than life shoulder pads that had a double function of holding your red lipstick.
However, I was only five years old so I wasn’t allowed into the disco. I was actually in the coolest place in town; hanging out with my glorious Gran in my kitchen playing our favourite game, Donkey, together! The game involved throwing the ball back and forth to each other and with each catch we spelt out the word ‘donkey’. When the ball fell on the floor we had to shout DONKEY! Now, still to this day, I don’t know if Gran and I made this game up. Do let us know if you played Donkey as a kid in the 80s – we would love to know!
Anyway, let’s get back to telling the story of how Forever Therapies was created!!
Gran and I had a great relationship. I grew up with her and she grew older with me.
One of my fondest memories is my Saturday night sleep-overs in Gran’s house. We used to watch Dallas together in front of the roaring coal fire to keep us cosy.
I no doubt was eating way too much sugar with our Saturday night treats. Gran absolutely LOVED Dallas and I was mesmerized by the beautiful faces of the actors. Gran and I stepped into the glamorous world of Dallas. I reckon Gran forgot all about her troubles just for one night.
While Gran and I were growing up and older together her Osteoarthritis worsened. During my teenage years, I remember Gran used to walk with the help of a walking stick and her face nearly met the pavement as she struggled to walk home from the shops (you can find a letter I wrote about Gran in our poetry/letter section, where I talk about this more. It was published in The Sunday Independent newspaper in what was their very popular column, ‘The Letter I Wish I Had Written’). Gran was in lots of pain at times due to her Osteoarthritis so I naturally wished I could do a fantastical magic trick that would take away that pain in her fragile yet strong willed body.
Elizabeth Flood – Gran
When I was eighteen I discovered the world of massage and holistic therapies, nutrition, positive thinking, all the good stuff! Up until that point I had never even heard of massage therapy – let alone that you could do courses in a variety of different holistic therapies. A very large & exciting door opened for me that year. I knew then I could help Gran and bring her some comfort and relief from the debilitating pain in her body.
So during my studies in holistic health therapies I signed up Gran as my case study and each week I gave her a lovely relaxing therapy with cosy warm towels and she absolutely loved it. She found great comfort and relief whilst experiencing the therapies. After all those years of Gran looking after me – reading me the famous Christmas story book every week for three months running up to Santa Clause’s visit, treating me to a bounty of ten-penny bags of sweets and chocolate bars, cooking me the greasiest, saltiest most delicious homemade chips, watching Dallas by the fireside, and countless games of Donkey – I was finally able to give back to Gran.
In 2006, Forever Therapies was born. One year later, on the 12th of September 2007, Gran died in Loughlinstown hospital. The world lost a very bright golden star that day – wherever Elizabeth’s essence is resting now is one happy place! Thank you dearly, Mrs. Elizabeth Flood (née Mason), 1915-2007, Rathdrum Co.Wicklow. You are the queen of queens! You would be deeply proud of the Forever Therapies team and we are honoured to have you as our inspiration. When we look after the residents we are looking after you too!
