Gary Reynolds | Dovida Donegal

“The way I was raised helped me to develop a deep respect for those older than me.”

Has respect for older people been something that’s been a significant part of your life? 

Very much so, from the time I was a child, there was always a big emphasis on respect and looking after your elders. I was raised with three great-grandmothers, so a lot of my role models in life would have been a lot older than me. When I was a child, if I wanted something, I would ask Granny politely. While my mother had a more modern approach, my upbringing in my grandparents’ home was rooted in traditional values. 

How has your culture and background shaped you as a person?  

Granny and Grandad took me everywhere – to every dance around the country, and that brought me the love of dancing and country music, and I created a small business out of dancing and teaching dancing, and I was entered into an All-Ireland Championship last year.  

I spent a lot of time with them and their friends – sure I learned more from them than I did in school – but respect for older people was always a big thing growing up. 

The local priest would call to Granny’s house on a Friday to give my great-grandmother the Eucharist, and they’d pray and bless her. If Granny was busy, I would have made him tea and a sandwich; there was great respect there. I’ve always found that I get on with older people very easily. I often been told, I’m an old soul, I have an old head on my shoulders. I’d like to think I’m very different to people my age in their early 20s.    

How does that help in your role as a caregiver?  

The way I was raised helped me to develop a deep respect for those older than me.  

I work at a fish market a couple of days a week, and there’s an older woman who comes in, she’s very slow going across the road, so I keep an eye out for her, and every time she comes to get fish from me, I always ask the next customer to hold on a second, and I go and help her across the road. That’s just something I think should be done. Older people can be forgotten about, but everything I know today I learnt from them, so I’ve a lot of respect for my elders.  

How do you connect with your clients?  

I put a lot of emphasis on having a laugh, having the craic with them. If you can do that, that’s the ice broken straight away, no matter how thick it is. One thing about Donegal – it’s a remote county, and we’re very secluded here, so most of my older clients all have similar backgrounds to myself, and they’re all similar to the older people that I was reared with. Having been reared with so many elderly people around me, I have a very good way with older people; I can connect with them straight away – it just happens naturally.  

Do you have a story you’d like to share from your upbringing? 

Well, I suppose there’s one thing that always comes to mind, I’ve got a memory of going to Glencolmcille on the 31st of January, St. Bridget’s Eve, and sitting around the old turf fire, making crosses and then them chatting in Irish, and me trying to make out what they’re saying. I’ve good Irish myself, but it was still a challenge, and then the tea and the scone bread would come out, it’s a real old tradition. That’s definitely a fond memory.