Covid-19: No panic, but Noel is glad to be safe at home
When Noel Shanahan first heard the government talk about the need to ‘cocoon’ it brought to mind a movie of the same name, where a group of trespassing seniors from a Florida retirement home rediscover their youth after swimming in a pool containing alien cocoons.
“In the absence of a pool and the energizing effects of aliens, we will have to make the most of our time cocooning,” Noel says with a laugh.
While he hasn’t lost his sense of humour, he does miss the ability to be “normal” around his children and grandchildren.
“I find trying to communicate from a distance and remembering to keep our distance a bit unnerving,” he says.
He found the early days of the pandemic slightly terrifying, “especially when I saw the images on TV of empty supermarket shelves”.
“It hadn’t really hit home until that happened, it felt like something that was unfolding very faraway,” Noel says.
For a few days, I joined the panic, and we bought rice, pasta, flour, porridge, copious amounts of tinned food and of course, toilet rolls.
“Back in the 1940s, when I was a child, toilet roll was pretty scarce and I was reminded of those times!”
Noel, who will be 80 in December, says himself and his wife Mercy have a good routine and are enjoying RTÉ home school, “even learning the Haka trí Gaeilge thanks to múinteoir John” before tuning into Mass on the radio, “followed by a cuppa and scones - my wife is the best scone-maker in Cork”.
Weather permitting, Noel heads for the garden where he has embarked on planting his first “veggie garden” thanks to Hanley’s garden centre home deliveries, with lettuce, beetroot and tomatoes on the way up - just in case supermarkets hit a lean patch. He has since learned that tomatoes should be grown in a greenhouse, but says they are “thriving” nonetheless.
“The good weather has been a great help in persevering with the cocooning,” says Noel, who is delighted they moved house in recent years “which brought the bonus of a back garden as well as bringing us closer to family, making it easier for them to do our shopping”.
They are fortunate, he says, to have a terrific local store nearby, JJ O’Driscoll’s.
The garden is “therapeutic” he says, and great for accommodating social distancing, making it possible for family to stand in the back garden and chat while Noel and Mercy stand inside the open patio doors.
It’s also a reminder of friends and relations who gave advice on planting and offered free garden labour when they first moved into their home in Ballinlough, eight years ago.
He is disappointed however that the pandemic robbed him of the chance to see his only son Dónal, who was due to return home from Scotland at Easter with his wife and child.
“However our grandchildren in Cork brought over banners at Easter and for Mother’s Day and they will hang on the walls until this quarantine is over, which hopefully will not be for too much longer,” Noel says.
The communication lines with Scotland are kept open via House Party on the iPad.
Noel is philosophical about the need to cocoon, saying he appreciates the magnificent efforts of health workers “which makes cocooning a small price to pay”.
He also has no plans to “rush out” now that the cocooning restrictions have eased: He doesn’t wish to place himself or others at risk, so home is where the heart is, for now.
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