Couple come through the other side of Covid-19

Couple come through the other side of Covid-19

By Maurice Garvey

BIRTHDAYS are bitter sweet during Covid-19 with families forced to host parties at a safe social distance.

However, Clondalkin grandmother Catherine Florish was glad to be celebrating her 84th birthday on Monday with her daughter Yvonne who, along with her husband, “came through the other side” of the coronavirus.

Catherine Florish compressor

Catherine Florish with Yvonne O’Connor

Family, friends and neighbours also joined in the, social distancing, celebrations in her Cherrywood estate.

“She broke her hip in a bad fall last year but is doing well, very active and up at 8am every morning,” said Catherine’s daughter Yvonne O’Connor.

Yvonne knows all too well the dangers of Covid-19, after she and her husband Cathal contracted the virus during the early stages of the pandemic.

“I was on the verge of going to hospital with a bad cough, he wasn’t as bad, but thank God, we came through the other side,” said Yvonne, a Tallaght resident.

“He is a taxi driver and got it around the time of the Ireland v Italy rugby match. Visitors to Ireland should never have left Italy at that time. Within two days of him getting it, I had it.

“We were supposed to go to Cheltenham for his 60th birthday, but we just didn’t go because of concerns around Covid-19, and yet we caught it anyway.”

Speaking of her beloved mother, Yvonne said Catherine “worked all her life up until 70, working in restaurants and then doing bakery classes in school.”

“She is still baking now for half the neighbourhood.”

Ms Florish raised her family in Clondalkin, her husband William Florish passed away ten years ago.

The grandmother has the use of a walker following a fall last year, and cannot do as much gardening as she normally did, but still enjoys the simple pleasures of life.

Yvonne said her mother is still a bit nervous about going outside despite an easing of the restrictions for over 70s, but remains in “good spirits.”

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