New Life: A fairytale ending for a lover of books

JACKIE FITZ-GERALD: TEACHER turned BOOKSHOP OWNER:Jackie Fitz-Gerald found a job she loves when illness forced her to give up her teaching career

WHEN Jackie Fitz-Gerald had to give up teaching due to illness, it was a devastating blow. But if she hadn’t ended her teaching career, she probably wouldn’t now be doing a job that she really loves and the envy of many.

As the owner of a bookshop, Fitz-Gerald laughs that the most stressful situation she faces on a daily basis is not being able to get a book for a customer. It’s a far cry from the classroom environment she left behind, which she found increasingly stressful and agressive.

Originally from Macroom in Co Cork, Fitz-Gerald studied English and French at University College Cork and went straight into a career in teaching, spending 15 years teaching at a secondary school in Co Waterford.

A decade ago, Fitz-Gerald was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), a progressive neurological condition, the symptoms of which include reduced mobility, severe fatigue and memory and concentration problems.

“Initially, the diagnosis had no huge knock-on effect on my life. I was a bit tired, but I kept teaching and I thought things would go on much the same. As time went on though, it became more obvious that I couldn’t continue to teach. I had pins and needles, mostly in my hands and feet. I couldn’t stand in the classroom or walk and I just didn’t have the energy to keep going.”

Fitz-Gerald explains that the word “exhaustion” does not even come close to describing the constant fatigue that is one of the worst symptoms of her condition. As MS is an illness that progresses differently in every individual patients, she points out that it’s very hard to predict what will happen long term.

“I did love teaching. It was what I chose to do. But I knew I couldn’t stay in the classroom much longer, so I tried to think of ways to do something else within the teaching framework that would make life easier for me and would be less physically demanding than being in charge of a class of 30 plus.”

Four years ago, Fitz-Gerald took a career break to do a postgraduate course in career guidance and counselling at UCC. She returned to her teaching job after the break but within a month, she realised that she could not keep going any longer.

Unable to get a job in career guidance, she applied to the University of Limerick to do a Master’s in Psychology, which she started in October 2008. However, in the meantime and within a year of retiring from teaching, another opportunity dropped into her lap.

“I had always said to Mairéad McSweeney, the owner of the local bookshop in Macroom, to let me know if she was ever thinking of retiring. I was kind of joking really because I never thought she would retire or offer the shop to me if she did. It had always been a kind of dream of mine, but I never thought the situation would present itself.”

Fitz-Gerald decided to take the opportunity and plough every cent she had and more besides into taking over the Macroom Bookshop. She finished out her year at UL but realised there was no way she could continue to run the shop and commute to Limerick to complete the three-year programme. However, she hasn’t ruled out going back to the master’s in the future.

Having purchased the name and the stock from the previous owner, the first thing Fitz-Gerald did was to move premises to a bigger, purpose-built shop that was buggy and disability friendly.

She also wanted to set up a special section for “reluctant readers” – children with learning difficulties and children with reading challenges who can find it hard to get suitable books.

She opened the doors of her new business on March 2nd, 2008, and is thoroughly enjoying her new career. Fitz-Gerald loves reading, and imagined that she would read when the shop was quiet but, she points out, there’s always something to be done when you’re running your own business.

“Owning the shop has been great for me because I hadn’t lived in Macroom for 15 years, so it made it really easy for people to find me. My customers are quite chatty, and I’m always busy ordering books, stocking shelves and so on. I’m fine on ordering stock and selling books and the day-to-day finances, but I rely a lot on my dad, who has always been in business, for advice on my long-term financial planning.”

But most importantly, Fitz-Gerald’s stress levels have been greatly reduced since she left teaching behind as stress can greatly exacerbate the symptoms of MS.

“The big thing in my illness is trying to avoid stress and there’s nothing like the worry and anxiety of teaching. You are very much the performer all the time. If you’re not a teacher, you can’t see how hard it is. It’s so much more relaxing selling books.”

Looking back now, Fitz-Gerald is surprised to find that she doesn’t miss teaching, even though she thought she would. She does not see teaching changing in the foreseeable future and says that having to be cross for eight hours a day “is not a nice place to be”.

“I don’t know if I would have left teaching if my illness had not happened and I will never know, but I am glad not to be there now. At least in the shop, I know nobody is going to come in and abuse me, be horrible to me or throw something at me. Teachers are being accused of bullying students, but I think it’s going the other way and students are bullying teachers.”

Although she will always battle with fatigue no matter what job she is in, Fitz-Gerald is coping well with her illness and working 40 hours a week in the shop. She rests in the evenings when she goes home.

“Some people say to me, ‘You’ve got my dream job’, and I tell them it is every bit as nice as they could possibly imagine!”