ARE WE EVER TOO OLD TO LEARN AND HAVE NEW ADVENTURES?

 

This week I interviewed 64 year old Bernadette Connolly, who I came across initially on Instagram. I was struck by the tag line she used 'Getting older and bolder". It was a sentiment that I related to and so I wanted to know a little bit more about her. What I found out made me want to include her in my lineup for one of my weekly Instagram lives. I started them because during lockdown I was really missing meeting new and older people and learning more about them and if they had faced ageism in their lives. It was not only people with businesses or things or lifestyles to sell but also people who had done interesting things with their lives as they aged, that I wanted to talk to.

Bernadette messaged me prior to the interview to say she would understand if I changed my mind and did not want to interview her, I think because she did not realise just how inspirational her life story was to me, and I hoped to many others too. I reassured her that I was very much looking forward to speaking to her. And so it was we came face to face on my Instagram live at 6pm on Thursday the 11th February 2021. 

I think we were both very relived the technology worked because this was the first time that Bernadette had done an Instagram live interview. I knew as soon as we connected on screen it would be alright.  

She told us how she was one of 10 children and when she was just 14 her 50 year old mother died suddenly from a brain haemorrhage, she says her life changed that day. Devastatingly three years later her father also died at the age of 57 from a heart attack. She says her brothers and sisters stayed living on the small farm that had a few cattle. She said it was upto her to get the 'wee ones' out to school, run a mile to catch the school bus and come home in the evening to a cold house to cook dinner, light the fire, help with homework and the 'wee ones', do her own homework and still school herself. I asked Bernadette if she was ever worried that they would be split up and sent to other families. She said that at the time there was no social services checking up on them, they survived on an orphans pension and selling the odd cow. 

She said that she put aside her desire to be a teacher so that she could stay near home. Even though many of her friends headed off to London or Dublin to pursue their careers of choice she opted to stay nearer home to care for the children and trained as a Psychiatric nurse .

She married and five years later decided to be a stay at home mother.  Before her mother died she knew only too well how it felt to come home from school in the evenings to a warm house and the smell of home baking and all of the brothers and sisters talking over each other to tell their mother about their days at school. She wanted her 5 children to experience that as well. She helped her husband with his business and bought up the children. 

As the years passed she got involved with local community activities and then returned to education in her mid forties. Juggling motherhood and studies over a few years, she eventually completed an access course, then a business management degree. She also did a Masters in Guidance Counselling, something she has been doing now for the last fourteen years.

Bernadette says she is a huge advocate of lifelong learning and says she feels privileged to meet adults from all walks of life and to see how education empowers them.

She says for her returning to education was a good move because now she is an 'educationalist', which involves a bit of teaching, something she says she is certain she would have done straight from school, if her mother had not died. At the time looking after her siblings was her main priority.

She started on Instagram about four years ago and says it is great to meet like minded people. It gives her the platform to be an advocate of life long learning and positive ageing. She says it is a mindset that we all need because we are living longer and generally healthier. 

Since Covid hit last year Bernadette says she has seen the importance of accessing technology. She says it is wonderful to see that age is not a barrier. She adds it just requires a 'wish to learn' and the motivation.

Bernadette also told me about her fabulous Inter-railing trip around Europe with her husband in their late fifties and she said they felt like teenagers again. This has made her and her husband more eager to buy a camper van when they retire and continue with their travels.

It was wonderful to chat with Bernadette and I have had so many lovely messages from people who listened, saying that she is inspiring and they loved listening.

If you want to hear the full interview it is on my IGTV Instagram @shuvonshuvoff

You can also follow Bernadette Connolly on @gettingolderandbolder