David: Good morning and welcome to another episode of my podcast on resilience now on this episode we have a special guess that relates back to my first podcast. This is my mother Colleen Fitzgerald who was apart from my father, probably the integral person in my recovery. Can I welcome you in Mum how are you going Coll? Colleen: I’m fine David and I’m delighted to be speaking with you About those traumatic events and what a wonderful outcome we had in spite of all the problems. David: if we could go back to the day of my accident which was 15 August 1982 could you just relive or explain to everyone the memories you have of the day. Colleen: You had just come back from a scout camp I think and My Niece had come down and wanted to ride on a horse and you had a ride after her and unfortunately there was another horse in the area and the horse took off and you came off and were dragged And even though it was obviously very bad at the time you were unconscious I’m sure at that time I had no idea at that time. How serious of the outcome of that accident was even when the ambulance came and took you to the Gatton hospital and it wasn’t until we got down to Brisbane And your father and I followed down in the ambulance that we began to realise the extent of your injuries and how things may or may not come right, and the first 24:48 hours was horrific. I can remember not being able to eat and nothing else was in my head it was absolutely very traumatic when we began to realise the extent of your injuries That may affect you very very badly. You may not even survive and when it was obvious that you were going to survive, was then waiting for you to recover consciousness might be some life that you were still functioning inside of that body that was not responding. Your father stayed the first week when you were in intense care and occasionally squeezing our hand when we asked and called your name and tried to get some response from you but that was very iffy not understanding if that was something you were consciously doing or whether that was an involuntary action And I think it became very much harder because your father had to go back to work after that first week and I stayed with the Robinsons who were wonderful but it was hard. I went in every day and I was by myself there the staff were wonderful and supportive, particularly the nurses And at one stage that the doctors said to us to just go home and wait to see what happens. We did that for a day but we couldn’t stay away so I came back down again and it wasn’t until you started to get some consciousness that there was something there that we could do That I felt we could do there was some hope we could bring you back out of it I suppose and as you remember yourself it was Bryan Butler who noticed the photo of Meninga on the wall and started teasing you about Meninga and saying Mal Meninga was a sook and that he was a baby And you became very agitated and that was quite a turning point at that stage. David: you’ve covered the first couple of questions that I had who did you reach out to or who was your support in that initial time. Colleen: your father Terri initially and he was there all the time we talked all the time he came down every weekend and we stayed at the Robinsons. The Robinsons were a tremendous support even though I learnt later there were facilities that I could’ve stayed at the Hospital. I look back later and realise it was extremely beneficial that I spent that whole day with you & it was a very stressful situation it was far better that I went out into a normal home and a normal family background each night which took me out of that and I was then able to come back and cope with each day. The nursing staff were very supportive and I think at that stage we both had a very deep faith and we did really pray not on our knees or anything, we leaned on our religion a lot. David: where do you think your strength came from? That you were able to handle that adversity situation. Dad for all his positives, He told me later. He wouldn’t have been strong enough to handle it all by himself that you were the strength behind my recovery so where do you think that came from? Colleen: I think sometimes I think you have an inner strength and I believe that a lot of my strengths in that situation and other situations where life has been very difficult has came from my mother from the Butlers Dotsie as you’d remember her. Your grandmother was a very strong person see she had a very difficult life and she had that inner strength that endurance to be able to dig in and really cope when the difficulties became very difficult and I think that a lot of that came from me but I also leaned upon your father a lot but I know that I have that inner strength and determination to keep going when things are difficult and that’s something I guess I’ve developed over my life but I tribute that to my jeans, I think it really does come from my mother from her side of the family to be able to cope with adversity and keep on going And I think that’s what came into play at that point. So your father and I, when I was down he would be strong and when I was strong I was able to support him and we did lean on each other a lot too David: we will go forward a little time after I came out of hospital and made some sort of recovery to when I was in about grade 10 and I got the diagnosis that I had developed Parkinson’s syndrome when I was 15. What were your feelings at that time? Colleen: I was probably as devastated as you were as you know we put all that hard work into recovery, and I didn’t mention before I believe that you have that same Butler tenacity and determination to fight things when it gets tough which you showed very much in that situation Like initially in your recovery we were hard on you and really insured that you did everything that we could possibly think of for your recovery but then it became a point when you took over and became very hard on yourself in order to improve and get back to where you wanted to be And I think it was your determination like you had to learn to write with your other hand which was quite a difficult thing. I looked for ways that we could help you and that was when we went through all that shocking messing about with the school and the department Trying to get some sort of device for you. We eventually bought one. Didn’t we? David: yes that was later on. Colleen: because it was just too much red tape to go through and I could see that there was something that would help you and you learnt to type which is Stood you in very good stead right through your whole life with what you took on later and all your college time but that then made it possible for you to be able to take notes and to be able to follow along in a lesson and had the referrals that you needed David: when I look back at my life now I think exercise really is beneficial to me in my development. How important do you think exercises? Colleen: in the instance of your recovery it was extremely important going right back to when you were in hospital, I don’t know if you remember Odette who was your physio when you were in hospital? She was marvellous and because I was there She used to come herself and she and I would push the wheelchair and she said that she didn’t normally do that but she knew that I was there to help her if she waited for a wardsman, sometimes the exercise session didn’t happen or it was late or curtailed in someway, but she was the very first one who showed me how important in your situation the physio was and how much it just gradually allowed you to do more things and I can remember sometimes things that hurt. We did it because if we didn’t do it and stretch out that arm or that leg you wouldn’t have been able to use them as effectively as you can today, so it goes right back to there and on the other side I always love to swim And I played basketball and I played squash and I did things like that and now as I’ve got older I can see how important exercise is to maintaining my body and to do the things & continue to do the things that I enjoy doing and for a woman of my age at this point I think I do a lot more exercise then people of my age generally do And I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a very big part of my life and it has paid benefits in that. I’m still very physically capable of doing things. I don’t need any aids and that you’re very well aware of the wonderful party the family gave me, I have just turned 80 and I’m finding that I’m continuing to be able to do things I do dancing yoga exercise class go to the gym list of varied things trying to balance the exercise that I do and I do maintain the cardio the core and the strength write through that groups of exercises and the things that I do and hopefully I will still remain in good health and that keeps me strong and able to continue doing the things I’m able to do David: The thing that is important and I didn’t realise until I did further studies few years ago is habits developing good habits early in life and I am so grateful that I developed those habits without even knowing that I was doing something that was essential for my development, but it’s a habit and you do them before doing them And develop good habits or bad habits good habit to develop is exercise. Colleen: and I knew that myself I need to do and if I got a class and a different an appointment I will definitely go to it and if it’s me swimming or going to the gym it has to happen in the early part of the morning like 5:30 6:30 and I do that then and that becomes a habit and that is easy to maintain and is very easy to get out of that routine and if you do, it’s hard to get back into it the habit I agree with you is an essential part of maintaining exercise. David: you’ve already mentioned that your 80. What gets you out of bed every morning? What inspires you at 80 years old? Colleen: I’m very lucky in that I’m healthy pretty fit and I’m still interested in doing lots of things as I said the first thing that I do in the mornings normally week mornings is get out and go to the pool or the gym and that’s good and sometimes you feel like sleeping in but once you do that the day just rolls on very easily it’s a good way to start the day and I do have a lot of interest as you would be aware I am into quilting I love hand embroidery. I never thought I’d see myself doing this And I keep in contact with the circle of friends having lunches having coffees, I never thought I’d be like that at all, and I love dancing. I have another group of friends there and I’m part of a couple of craft groups and I do my yoga on Thursday nights, so I have a regular routine of social activities and physical activities that I do during the week and I really enjoyed that and my life is very still very busy and I’m very interested in still learning things. I’m in a book club. I enjoy that so I have a lot of varied activities that I really enjoy David: I’ve read a lot of books about retirement and the one thing that you need to have is to keep doing things having a group of friends is essential. Just keep doing things. A lot of people finish work and just think this will be great and then they hit the wall and find that it’s not that great because they don’t have the social interactions that maybe they did before Colleen: that’s true and in many ways when I finished work and I was 71 when I finished I then was able to do other things that I’d been on the fringe of for awhile so my interest were already there waiting to be developed in exercise in the quilting and the sewing world and that really absorbs me and then I found that I did have the time for the coffees and the lunches and the contacts and keeping up with people It was there ready to move into but you do have to make that effort. Yes it’s very easy to just to retire virtually and not have a lot to do a lot of people do get depressed unfortunately, and I have my lovely partner. I never thought after your father the way we had such a wonderful relationship. I never thought that I would have such contentment and such happiness with another person so that’s another zest to my life and I have the hut to David: you’ve had an incredible life Coll not only did you raise me and done such a great job in my recovery. You’ve also had three other wonderful children and you have numerous grandchildren that you spend a lot of time with and use your assignment writing skills and that sort of thing and do you have any final words of wisdom for the audience Coll Colleen: I think family is essential. Keeping good relationships with your family and enjoying your family and spending time with them and your friends and the other thing is being open to new ideas. Exercise is essential but having an open mind and being ready to learn new things and try new things I think is very very important and don’t give up when you try something I say to myself particularly in my quilting world. This is as good as I am now. I will keep at it and I’ll practice and I will get better so I think that is very important is something to achieve and better. David: it’s been wonderful talking with you today Coll Colleen: thank you very much David for having me on your podcast. It’s been a delight .