81 year old Teresa Flynn, born in Mountshannon, recounts experiences as a midwife in 1950s UK and Chicago, her love for her family and West Clare and how her life took on a whole new meaning in her sixties when she became involved in The Burren Chernobyl Projects and later met her ‘little angel’ Sergei.
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| Teresa Flynn and "her little angel" Sergei |
Teresa Flynn was born in Mountshannon on 8th of December 1930, the youngest of five (three brothers, one sister and herself). “I had wonderful parents” she said, “and life has been brilliant.”
In 1952 she went to England to train to be a nurse in The Royal Surrey County Hospital and later became a midwife at Central Middlesex Hospital. She spent six months in the hospital and six months on the district delivering babies at home. She particularly enjoyed the latter. Four midwives would share a house and someone always stayed up at night to take the calls, which was termed ‘couching’. They travelled on bicycles. “It was a wonderful experience because I would go into very tough areas where the poor mother would be on her own because the husband would be in jail. They were beautiful people. It was a great privilege and I’m glad I did it.”
After receiving her SRN and SCM qualifications she went to Chicago and worked for ‘The Little Company of Mary’ also known as ‘The Little Company of Irish’ due to the number of Irish people there. It was there that Teresa really became aware of racism. One night a black lady was brought to the hospital by two policemen. The policemen apologised profusely for bringing her there. Teresa’s response was “Don’t apologise to me. I’m a foreigner. This woman is American.” The other midwives were disgusted but Teresa delivered her baby and even managed to give her a private room. At the young age of 27 Teresa stood out as a courageous woman fighting for equality.
She was overjoyed when Barack Obama was elected US president in 2008. “It shows huge change in peoples thinking”. The night he was elected she stayed up until 3am praying for a miracle. She spoke with great sadness about the black people not having a vote for so long and the hardship the slaves in South America had suffered. “Thank God the day has finally come when people of whatever race or creed have their rights; that’s what has really made it for me.”
After five years in Chicago, Teresa returned to Ireland to take care of her mother on her death-bed. During that time she met her husband-to-be, Benjamin John Flynn at a dance in Scariff. They were married in the UK in 1962 and after a record eight year honeymoon in Jersey, they moved back to Ireland and raised their family in Nenagh. She has three daughters (Elizabeth, Audrey and Angela) and two sons (Tim and Ben) whom she is extremely proud of. “I’m blessed thank God with a wonderful wonderful family but they couldn’t be any other way because of their father. I certainly wouldn’t be taking any credit for it.” Her husband ran his own saw-mills in Mountshannon and in her eyes, he was the kindest person she had ever met. Sadly, not long after Teresa and Benjamin moved to Miltown Malbay he passed away.
In 1996, a few years after Benjamin’s death, Teresa became involved in the Burren Chernobyl project. One day she received a phone-call; she was asked if she would help to take care of the children who had just arrived to Spanish Point from Chernobyl. Before she knew it she was in Belarus. “The conditions were horrendous; there was a complete lack of love”. Babies weren’t being changed. “Mothers were encouraged to get rid of the burden of their children by leaving them in orphanages.” Visitors to orphanages were rare and Teresa noticed that if anyone, it was the grandparents who visited. A lot of the children had Down Syndrome. “The little angels there didn’t know who they were or where they were.” When a sick child was brought from the orphanage to the hospital, the staff would tell them to go back home. “It wouldn’t look good if there were too many people dying in the hospital.” Many of the carers had alcoholic husbands and some of them were alcoholics too. As always, Teresa viewed this with compassion: “How could you expect too much from those people? They were absolutely struggling to get on.”
It was in 1998 that Teresa met her “little angel” Sergei Ulyanchyk. Sergei was not a victim of radiation but had been dropped as a baby and was severely brain damaged. He was also in the final stages of malnutrition. His mother was in prison for murdering her brother and he had been left in Chervan orphanage. He was very special to Teresa. In 1999 he came to live with her in Miltown Malbay for two years. All of the children from Belarus were eventually forced to return so Teresa went with Sergei and took care of him there until he died in February 2007. “I thank God a thousand times to have done what I did because it wasn’t something I had planned.”
Sergei was given a beautiful send-off. “A group of men from the orphanage went out at 6am and burned tyres on the grave to melt the frost that had gone six inches down into the ground to open the grave.” Ann O’ Sullivan sang a beautiful hymn. His mother was present and at that moment Teresa felt both pleased and sad. “If only the other little treasures that were buried all around us could have had the same send off.”
Thankfully there have been vast improvements in Belarus since the first time Teresa set foot there in 1998. “There is no shortage of orphanages today and some of them are massive.” Teresa spoke highly of Brother Liam O’ Meara, Brother Ned Hayden, and Kevin O’ Sullivan, all of whom are dear friends of hers and are heavily involved in The Burren Chernobyl Project. She also praised Reeny Beeny (their interpreter whose surname she never knew), Breda O’ Connell and Ann O’ Sullivan whom she could not have been without during that time.
Today Teresa spends a lot of time with her children and her eleven grandchildren whom she adores. She continues to live in Miltown Malbay and absolutely loves it. “There is nowhere in the world that an older person can be treated better than we are here.” Her dear friend and home-carer, Breda O’ Connell comes to see her five days a week with something tasty to eat and she has fantastic neighbours.
Unlike many elderly people today, Teresa does not fear death or the traditional God of judgement. “The Lord who died for us is full of love and compassion; there’s no need to worry at all. If you have forgiveness and love in your own heart then that’s it.” Her plan is to be buried beside her husband in Mountshannon cemetery. She believes she takes after her father, who lived until he was in his nineties, and has a few more years in her yet.
To young people today Teresa offers the following advice: “Never bear a grudge because it’s like a cancer. It keeps growing.” As the interview ends she finishes off with the same phrase she uttered when I walked in the door two hours earlier: “Life has been brilliant Thank God.”
