A Dublin couple is getting ready for a commitment ceremony tomorrow after a near-death experience almost separated them forever.
Pete Brennan's spent weeks on a ventilator after contracting Covid just a few short years after fate brought him and Niamh Flanagan together. Niamh, 52, and 64-year-old Pete met in 2010 at a wedding when Pete caught Niamh’s eye across the bar.
But nothing happened at the time apart form a spark of attraction as Niamh was still married at the time. Fate would reunite them once again a few years later at a dance class which Niamh started going to as a way heal from her previous relationship. The pair became friends before Niamh finally confessed to Pete that she was in love with him.
Read more: Brave Tallaght man, 61, with rare and life threatening condition BEATS Covid after 8 week struggle
The Sutton Park woman told Dublin Live: “[I] was going out on a couple of dates and he got very jealous. He'll never admit that he got jealous, but that was kind of the spark.
“And we sat down. I just laid my feelings on the table that I actually, I loved him and that I really wanted to be with him, and he felt the same way.
“We started our relationship nine years ago in September and we've been basically going steady ever since then.”
Niamh, who can’t have children herself, really became a part of Pete’s family and loves his four grown children and baby grandson as her own. When her mother passed away from cancer in 2020, Pete was Niamh's rock.
However, Covid almost took Pete away from Niamh. The Churchtown-born man, who has a rare and life-threatening form of severe asthma, tested positive for the virus on New Year’s Eve 2021.
Within a couple of days, Pete was taken to hospital. He was initially let out for a week after staff believed he had stabilised but he quickly started deteriorating again and soon Niamh had to call an ambulance.
She said: “It was horrible. It absolutely was horrible. I was actually over in my own house at the time because I had been waiting for someone to come and fix my shower and I'd stayed at home and I was gonna come over to him that morning.
“And then I got the phone call and I was talking to him. I said, Pete, you sound awful, I'm phoning the ambulance now.
“My heart was racing, as you can imagine, but the ambulance, they were there very quickly and they took him straight in. But I remember walking into the house and I cried my eyes out thinking, oh God, please, please don't, don't take him, just make him get better.”
Niamh and the rest of Pete’s family initially phoned the hospital every day for updates or have the staff put him on the phone. “But then he got too weak and he wasn't able to even take his mask off cause his oxygen stats were getting worse and worse...and I'll never forget the loneliness and the isolation," said Niamh.
Pete was soon put on a ventilator and the calls stopped, with the family only getting daily updates from the hospital. “It was very lonely, scary experience, and the worst was not being able to be there with him, not being able to hold his hand to reassure him and just to be there beside him," said Niamh.
Miraculously, Pete gradually started getting better and soon entered rehabilitation. During the entire time, no visits were allowed so Niamh and the children were only able to cheer for him through voice notes on WhatsApp that the nurses would play to him.
Niamh recalled the first time she saw Pete again for a short 10-15 minute-long visit with full PPE six weeks after he was admitted in Tallaght Hospital. She said: “He was still quite sedated – he was aware but he was very groggy. So began his long road to recovery because he had to effectively learn to walk again.
“And that itself is so destroying for a man who was always extremely fierce and extremely, despite his asthma, quite a healthy man. He liked to swim. He liked to walk. He liked to exercise regularly.”
Pete got back on his feet and was there for his grandson Mason’s first birthday and Niamh’s 50th birthday. While he has mostly recovered from his Covid, Pete can’t work again.
Niamh, who works part-time at a post office, became his official carer because of his underlying health issues. She said: “He'll never be a hundred percent again. But I don't care because I love him.”
She added: “We started living again. The family has had some ups and downs, but his daughter actually said in January, this is going to be our year.”
Pete proposed in March and they have been preparing for the commitment ceremony since. They are doing a ceremony as opposed to a marriage because he is still in the process of getting divorced.
The 52-year-old concluded: “We're just super excited about the prospect of actually getting to spend the rest of our life and committing to spending the rest of our life as a couple together… After all the negativity, it really has our relationships just stronger than ever.”
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