ACHES & PAINS
Dear Monika,
AS YOU know, Maeve Binchy’s novels are very popular in Germany. My mother enjoyed them too, especially after having visited Ireland a few times while I lived there.
When my mother lost her eyesight due to macular degeneration she became an avid ‘reader’ of audio books, borrowed from a wonderful library for blind and partially sighted people. She listened to all available Binchy books with new enjoyment and would reminisce about her visits to Ireland. She was so happy that she could visualise some of the places mentioned in the novels, among them Merrion Square, Dun Laoghaire, the Wicklow mountains and West Cork.
My mother remembered one of Maeve Binchy’s newspaper articles especially well. It was the one about Maeve’s hip operation which I read to my mother not long after her own hip replacement surgery. She was greatly amused and also intrigued.
When she, by then well into her 80s, needed a knee replacement, she startled the surgeon by insisting on having local anesthesia only. He tried to talk her out of it, but she remained firm and finally won the argument by pointing out: ‘Maeve Binchy was not under general anaesthesia either. And hers was hip surgery.’
When the day came, my mother quite enjoyed her operation in a way. ‘They talked about their holiday plans, not about the operation at all,’ she told me later, still surprised. ‘And they were rather taken aback when I suddenly joined the conversation from behind the cloth that screened my face.’
Having been an avid traveller, she shared some of her travel tips. She recommended Ireland, too, and — ever the proud mother — suggested they read my middlegrade-to-YA novel, which had already lured readers of all ages to Ireland.
She then went on to entertain the theatre staff by recounting Maeve Binchy’s impressions during her surgery. That she thought the noise of hammering and drilling was due to the Dublin building boom was especially well received by the German operating team.
Hope to see you soon, either over here or in Dublin!