Peter Lights Up A Life

“I met my wife Aine when we were both in our 60s, and that was the luckiest day of my life.

Growing up, I never knew my father, and my mother took me from Canada, where I was born, to the UK when I was six. When the war started and I was evacuated to Devon, I was
looked after by a lovely couple who treated me as their son. I never really saw my mother after that. Devon became the only home I had ever really known.

I worked in the meat business and renovated a disused butchery, brought it back to life. I built a reputation as an honest man, and that’s been my maxim in life. If you can’t be
honest, don’t bother. And if you can’t find a smile, what’s the point?

I sold the business, retired, and moved to Spain. It wasn’t long after that, that I met Aine. She turned up in my local bar one night with five of her friends, and I heard one of them say ‘Valderrama’, which is a golf course nearby. I said ‘Excuse me girls, does someone want to know about Valderrama?

So, they all came trooping down and I got introduced to an ‘Irish night out’. When she and her friends were leaving at the end of her holiday, she took me aside, waved at her pals and said, ‘They’re all married. But I’m available’. We spent the next 22 years together, making each other happy, right to the end.

When Aine got ill, I began to learn how incredible the Hospice was. They took such good care of her. I brought a little bed in there and slept beside her every night, holding her hand so she could go to sleep. She died at home, right here, with me by her side. I was so in love with her. I still am.

The Hospice come and look after me now. I was in with them for a while, and they made sure I had the same room, the same bed, that Aine had been in – that made me smile! They come here three times a week. I have cancer, and this COPD which is so debilitating. I don’t know what way things will go for me, but I trust them and they’re honest with me.

They’re good people. For Light Up A Life, I’ll be remembering my girl, Aine. I’ll remember when she was happy and well. But also, the great care she got at Wicklow Hospice. Maybe you’ll join me, and make a donation, so that the same care is there for others who need it”