Recently a lot of people have shown me great kindness and one thing that was said several times which surprised me was ‘You were good to me’. I thought a lot about that and came to the conclusion that what people meant was I came in and talked to you about something that was going on in my life and you didn’t talk to anyone else about it.
This made me feel very happy. A strange thing to say maybe, but it meant that one of the main things I wanted to achieve with the business was that it was a safe space. Somewhere where they could come and not worry about gossip or people passing comment.
When I first moved to Belmullet that was one of the things I really struggled with. It was hard for a big city girl to go into town and know everyone knew you. Sometimes I just wanted to go in buy a milk and not talk to anyone. So I stopped going out of the house some days. Then some of those days I stopped getting dressed – and so I started to put my energy into a project, my shop!
So it was really important for me to create that cosy, non-judgemental, space where I hope everyone felt welcome and from the comments I got back when I closed the shop I think I did it.
I might not have the shop anymore but I have a kitchen and a kettle. I know these chance encounters when your having a bad day won’t happen without the shop, but I hope you know I’m here if you need me.