Embracing this unpredictable, beautiful life

IT will never happen to me. I must have told myself that a thousand times during this life as I encountered those who had been struck down with one affliction or another. My life was always going to be perfect. It would follow a simple path where good health, mobility and long life were guaranteed. To be honest, I never really thought about any of that stuff. Poor health, disability and death were never in my plan, so they didn’t feature behind the eyes.
One morning last week, I spoke with Castlebar native Geraldine Lavelle and my thought-process took a detour. Geraldine was out for a cycle in 2013 when she was involved in a horrific road accident and her life changed forever.
A spinal cord injury meant that three quarters of her body was paralysed. It set in train a journey through dark, bleak days when she struggled to accept the cruel fate visited upon her to her emergence as a powerful and articulate voice for people with disabilities in Ireland.
When I spoke to Geraldine, my task was to interview her about her book, ‘Weathering the Storm’, but the conversation yielded so much more. Geraldine’s story isn’t a run-of-the-mill tale of resilience or a story of hope emerging from the ashes; instead her tale is one of utterly brilliant simplicity.
As she said herself – she could wait in bed all day and feel sorry for herself or get up and embrace the challenges. I honestly feel I would have opted for the former, but that certainly wasn’t the route Geraldine took.
When reading her book, it’s immediately obvious that she possesses a powerful intellect because, as well as telling the story, the pages gives readers what they want. Geraldine outlines her childhood and the fun she had with family and friends. She tells about life and work and moving in with her long-term boyfriend – the ordinary enough things of life. Her friend Rachel O’Neill speaks of ‘nights we danced and laughed and chased the stars without ever going to bed’.
Geraldine also takes readers to the very heart of the matter. “I’ve often been asked what paralysis feels like,” she writes, before describing her feelings in the immediate aftermath of her impact with a lorry.
“It was as if an electrical short circuit occurred in my body, as if a trip switch had been hit and everything went instantly numb despite being fully conscious.” She tells the reader about lying there on the tarmac, wondering if she was breathing her last and wondering if death would hurt.
Geraldine tells her story brilliantly. The reader moves through the hours after the impact, then on to her becoming aware of her new ‘situation’ and the grief, frustration and myriad of other emotions she experienced along the way.
Like billions of others, Geraldine never thought she would become paralysed in a split second, but that was the fate which befell her. Speaking with her was illuminating – reading her book was captivating. She tells us about not wanting to leave her room – not wanting to fight back – not wanting to face the challenges in front of her. But, ultimately, she was never going to shy away from them. The drive that brought her great success throughout her early life did not desert her because of a road accident, it is ingrained in her soul, and she gradually began to fight back.
Family and friends gathered round her and raised funds to help her along the way. She returned to work, she returned to academia, she returned to pushing herself to the limit each and every day. Geraldine Lavelle is an ordinary woman living an extraordinary life, and that’s what makes her story so interesting.
Writing a book is a feat many of us would like to achieve, but often we don’t have the ingredients to capture the attention of others. As a writer, Geraldine doesn’t fall into that category. Her story is a mix of so many emotions, so many ups and downs, so many unpredictable moments and so many lessons for the rest of us – even though she’s not lecturing us about anything.
In the book’s final sentences, Geraldine speaks about missing simple things, such as getting out of bed at night for a glass of water or being able to put her hair in a pony-tail, but she also speaks about the great things in her life.
“I’m so grateful for my family and friends who have stuck by my side. I’m grateful for all the new friends I’ve made and for all those who love me. Cheers to nine years and an unpredictable, beautiful life.”

‘Weathering The Storm’, an honest and inspirational account of a courageous young woman’s determination to survive the harshest of life’s storms, is a Mayo Books Press publication. It is available in local stockists and online at mayobooks.ie.