Show Transcript

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Kevin Lowe: Have you ever had a day where it felt like your entire life was falling apart?

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Kevin Lowe: If so, well, then you can relate to Niamh McAnally.

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Kevin Lowe: Because in the span of one day, she became jobless, homeless.

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Kevin Lowe: And the only form of transportation she had were the shoes on her feet.

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Kevin Lowe: At this point in her life, she was divorced in her mid-50s.

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Kevin Lowe: And to be honest, she didn't know what she would do. But thankfully,

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Kevin Lowe: Niamhhas a spirit like nobody I've ever met, and she realized that there was something more.

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Kevin Lowe: And so she would embark on an adventure, traveling the world for a year,

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Kevin Lowe: Working just for food and lodging.

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Kevin Lowe: Now, where her story really gets exciting was the last trip,

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Kevin Lowe: the last go-round, before settling down, getting back to that, quote, normal life.

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Kevin Lowe: She was going to help a solo sailor crew his sailboat from Florida to the Bahamas.

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Kevin Lowe: Now, what happens next? That is only a story that Niamhcan share herself.

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Kevin Lowe: All I can do is to urge you to not go anywhere.

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Kevin Lowe: As a matter of fact, I want you to be sure that you listen all the way through today's episode.

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Kevin Lowe: Even if you have to take a break, you come back a few times,

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Kevin Lowe: be sure you finish it. because there's a story at the very end of our conversation

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Kevin Lowe: that ties it all together.

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Kevin Lowe: It's a part of her story that you never knew you were missing,

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Kevin Lowe: but once you hear it, you realize you can't live without it.

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Kevin Lowe: My friend, this is a story that I hope is going to set your soul on fire.

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Kevin Lowe: It's going to have you wanting more out of life because that,

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Kevin Lowe: after all, is the whole point of sharing it with you. With that said,

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Kevin Lowe: I welcome you to what is episode 346 of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

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Yo, are you ready to flip the script on life? Because those bad days,

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they're just doors to better days.

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And that's exactly what we do here at Grit, Grace, and Inspiration. Your host, Kevin Lowe.

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He's been flipping the script on his own life, turning over 20 years of being

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completely blind into straight-up inspiration, motivation, and encouragement just for you.

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So, kick back, relax, and let me introduce you to your host, Kevin Lowe.

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Kevin Lowe: I am in the studio today with a woman who I have been looking forward to meeting

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Kevin Lowe: again because the first time I talked to her, she stole my heart.

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Kevin Lowe: I love her. And I'm excited to get to introduce her to you right now.

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Kevin Lowe: Niahm, welcome to the podcast.

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Niamh McAnally: Thank you so much, Kevin. Lovely to be here with you.

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Kevin Lowe: Oh, well, I am excited to dive into your story all the way back from Ireland,

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Kevin Lowe: all the way to Florida. We're going around the world today.

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Kevin Lowe: And I guess I figure, you know, we might as well start back at the beginning.

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Kevin Lowe: And specifically, I would love for you to kind of dive into a story,

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Kevin Lowe: sharing with me a bit about life growing up in Ireland and specifically growing

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Kevin Lowe: up in a family that were all actors.

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Niamh McAnally: Right. So both my parents were actors. So I kind of grew up in that theatrical background.

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Niamh McAnally: And it's kind of hardly surprising that I ended up in the business myself originally

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Niamh McAnally: in theater and eventually became a television director.

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Niamh McAnally: The best part about it that has been useful for me in my life has been the fact

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Niamh McAnally: that they were both freelance actors.

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Niamh McAnally: So they would get cast in a show for three or four weeks at a time and they

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Niamh McAnally: would never know necessarily where the next job was coming from.

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Niamh McAnally: Now, they were both very good.

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Niamh McAnally: They knew they had the talent and they knew they had, you know,

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Niamh McAnally: the demand, but they would never know for sure.

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Niamh McAnally: So as a result of that, like variety was very much part of our norm growing

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Niamh McAnally: up and you didn't know what was going to happen in two months' time or three

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Niamh McAnally: months' time, people would ask them for commitments for six months out and they'd

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Niamh McAnally: be like, well, we don't know because we don't know if we're going to be working then or not.

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Niamh McAnally: And that really helped shape my outlook on life in terms of reinventing myself all the time.

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Niamh McAnally: I've had like five careers across five different industries,

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Niamh McAnally: but it just seems normal. You just start again.

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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, that is fascinating. Now, you had siblings as well who were into acting also, correct?

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Niamh McAnally: Yeah, both my brothers were in the business as well. they were in front of the

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Niamh McAnally: TV cameras and also behind them and then into radio production and music television production.

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Niamh McAnally: So, yes, there was it was quite a family event.

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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, that's fascinating. Now, growing up, did you pretty much just know like

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Kevin Lowe: after school and stuff that you would want to get into that line of work?

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Niamh McAnally: I wasn't sure, to be perfectly honest, because I didn't.

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Niamh McAnally: My parents were both so talented. I wasn't sure if I would have enough talent

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Niamh McAnally: and I didn't want to disgrace them.

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Niamh McAnally: So Ireland at the time, it was very much a homogenous society.

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Niamh McAnally: And it wasn't a foregone conclusion that everybody would go to college.

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Niamh McAnally: And to me at the time, it seemed like it was mostly, you know,

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Niamh McAnally: people who wanted to be teachers and professors.

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Niamh McAnally: And also, I had read an essay for our leaving certificate, the equivalent of

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Niamh McAnally: like high school graduation, by Cardinal John Henry Newman, which was the idea of a university.

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Niamh McAnally: And in it, he said something that has resonated with me my entire life was,

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Niamh McAnally: it's a school of knowledge of every kind, consisting of teachers and learners from every quarter.

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Niamh McAnally: And so I thought to myself, well, I'm not going to see that diversity in Ireland.

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Niamh McAnally: Now, certainly it's a much more diverse country now.

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Niamh McAnally: But at the time, I also loved English and I loved French.

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Niamh McAnally: So I took off as a teenager to Paris, France, and went to study French language

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Niamh McAnally: and literature at an international class in the Sorbonne University.

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Niamh McAnally: And that opened my eyes to the world, if you like, because everybody was from a different country.

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Niamh McAnally: And also I was living in the family with a French family minding one of the children.

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Niamh McAnally: So I thought, hmm, there's so much to do and see in the world. and I wanted to go.

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Niamh McAnally: But I came back to Ireland at the end of, I think it was 18 months, not quite 18 months.

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Niamh McAnally: And it was time to, well, maybe I should try and support myself now and get a job.

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Niamh McAnally: And it was coming up to the Dublin Theatre Fest. I remember it was autumn time.

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Niamh McAnally: And I got a job working as the assistant stage manager on one of the shows that

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Niamh McAnally: was a couple of weeks in rehearsal and then two weeks playing in the Olympia Theatre, I remember.

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Niamh McAnally: And then that was like, I really like this.

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Niamh McAnally: You know, it was it really kind of helped me with my artistic talents and creativity.

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Niamh McAnally: So I kept going and I was working in theatre for a number of years and then

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Niamh McAnally: ended up with the Abbey Theatre, which is the National Theatre of Ireland.

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Niamh McAnally: And I trained as a trainee director, had another bit of experience over in London

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Niamh McAnally: with one of Sir Peter Hall, who was a director who took on trainee directors.

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Niamh McAnally: And then finally, I moved into the area of television and became a TV director.

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Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. So you were the woman behind the scenes, making everything work.

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Niamh McAnally: Right. Exactly. From the beginning, I was kind of like I was testing the waters

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Niamh McAnally: in front of the scenes, if you like.

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Niamh McAnally: But then after that, it was like, no, behind the scenes was where I really felt that that was my spot.

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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. I love it. Well, you mentioned about reinvention, reinventing yourself.

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Kevin Lowe: And I'm going to assume from the little bit I know that those reinventions are

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Kevin Lowe: probably going to guide our conversation a lot today.

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Kevin Lowe: And just as kind of like a sneak preview, would you mind sharing as an overview

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Kevin Lowe: what those reinventions were that you've done?

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Niamh McAnally: Sure. So earlier in 87, I had been introduced to scuba diving.

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Niamh McAnally: And I met somebody that was also on the instructor program when I became a scuba instructor.

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Niamh McAnally: And we were together and it was like, oh, let's go travel the world and teach

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Niamh McAnally: scuba diving. We can go to all these wonderful places.

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Niamh McAnally: And at that stage, I was a television director and I thought,

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Niamh McAnally: oh, yeah, that sounds great. We just take off and travel.

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Niamh McAnally: And so that's when I got into the professional end of scuba diving instruction.

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Niamh McAnally: And that's what brought me originally to Belize, where I was working on a volunteer

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Niamh McAnally: project. and then ultimately from there to Key Largo, Florida and stay there a number of years.

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Niamh McAnally: Now, the relationship didn't work out. So I kind of figured like, well, what's next?

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Niamh McAnally: And down in Key Largo at the time, the biggest kind of employer I could see

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Niamh McAnally: at the time outside of Scuba was one of the hotels. It was a Sheraton hotel at the time.

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Niamh McAnally: You know, a little bit brazen. I went down there thinking, well,

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Niamh McAnally: I'm Irish and we're supposed to be renowned for hospitality.

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Niamh McAnally: So how hard could it be to work at a hotel?

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Niamh McAnally: It's like it's like I had this idea like somebody comes in

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Niamh McAnally: and you say oh good evening here's your key off you go you know

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Niamh McAnally: I mean with absolutely no respect

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Niamh McAnally: for all the people who have like gone to college and gone

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Niamh McAnally: to hospitality degrees and everything else like that you know but anyway I started

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Niamh McAnally: working in the hotel they very graciously gave me a job with zero experience

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Niamh McAnally: and pretty soon though they realized that I had you know managerial kind of

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Niamh McAnally: style of working so they offered me a job as the, I think it was the front office,

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Niamh McAnally: a front desk supervisor originally.

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Niamh McAnally: And anyway, from there, I did more and more and I kind of backdoored my way into it.

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Niamh McAnally: I then started doing my certificates and my diplomas and all that good stuff.

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Niamh McAnally: And I ultimately became a manager of a hotel and living over on the island of

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Niamh McAnally: Sark in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, just off the coast of France.

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Niamh McAnally: And I lived on this amazing island, which was three and a half miles long,

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Niamh McAnally: a mile and a half wide, accessible only by ferry.

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Niamh McAnally: There's no cars on the island, no paved roads and no airport.

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Niamh McAnally: So it was incredible. And it rises 300 feet up out of the ocean, if you like.

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Niamh McAnally: Yeah, it's quite a stunning, stunning location.

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Niamh McAnally: In fact, Enya, the singer Enya actually has an album out called Dark Sky Island.

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Niamh McAnally: And it's about that island, Sark, because they became the first island in the

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Niamh McAnally: world to get dark sky status, you know, where there's no light pollution and

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Niamh McAnally: you can see these amazing stars. So that's how that came about.

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Niamh McAnally: So that brought me into hospitality.

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Niamh McAnally: At the end of 2014, I had been on Sark for five years at that point,

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Niamh McAnally: and the owners decided they weren't going to open the hotels in the year of 2015.

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Niamh McAnally: So I thought, hmm, what's next? so I

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Niamh McAnally: was so involved and addicted to

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Niamh McAnally: volunteer travel every time I went on vacation I would

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Niamh McAnally: volunteer to try and you know live in the community

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Niamh McAnally: and I thought I know what I'm going to do I'm going to take a year out and I'm

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Niamh McAnally: going to travel the world as a volunteer in one direction so start out in London

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Niamh McAnally: and head west and keep going the whole way around the world and take 12 months

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Niamh McAnally: to do it that was my plan and it worked out really well I did some amazing projects like in St.

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Niamh McAnally: Barthes, down in New Zealand. I was in many of the islands in South Pacific,

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Niamh McAnally: like Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, French Polynesia, back up through Palau,

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Niamh McAnally: across Asia, and then eventually back to London, right? Job done.

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Niamh McAnally: And then I saw one more project on this website that I used to go to,

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Niamh McAnally: to find these volunteer projects.

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Niamh McAnally: And it was to help a solo sailor crew his boat from Florida to the Bahamas.

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Niamh McAnally: And it was only going to take a month. So I thought, perfect,

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Niamh McAnally: I'm going to apply for that.

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Niamh McAnally: And in the meantime, I'll send out my resumes and then I'll be back in time

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Niamh McAnally: by the time I get interviews, et cetera.

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Niamh McAnally: Well, I get on the boat and let me just say, it was supposed to last a month

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Niamh McAnally: and I lived on that boat for six years. Yes.

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Niamh McAnally: And then and then it turned out one of the

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Niamh McAnally: things is the captain captain gary was

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Niamh McAnally: not looking for a relationship neither was i by the way but when you live 24

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Niamh McAnally: 7 in a 40 foot space on the high seas and you have to rely on your fellow mariner

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Niamh McAnally: for your safety and there's no wi-fi no internet no self-service per se.

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Niamh McAnally: Guess what you do after the day is done? You sit and you talk.

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Niamh McAnally: And we got to know each other so profoundly, you know, through chit-chat,

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Niamh McAnally: but then some really deep conversations because Gary had a degree,

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Niamh McAnally: a master's degree in spiritual psychology.

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Niamh McAnally: And I had spent a year after Fiji, after my first trip to Fiji with the Tony

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Niamh McAnally: Robbins program, which really taught me an awful lot about why we do things

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Niamh McAnally: and, you know, and how you motivate yourself.

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Niamh McAnally: And so the two of us came at similar conversations with similar approaches,

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Niamh McAnally: but they were still different enough for us to, you know, have meaningful conversations.

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Niamh McAnally: So after that, It was like, hmm.

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Niamh McAnally: And then about, I think it was four years on the boat and we were down in the

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Niamh McAnally: Caribbean on a little island or anchored off a little island called Bequay.

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Niamh McAnally: And it was Thanksgiving and the sun was setting and he proposed on the deck.

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Kevin Lowe: Amazing.

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Niamh McAnally: Yeah, yeah, that was quite extraordinary. And then we were planning,

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Niamh McAnally: that was 2019, and then we were planning on getting married in 2020.

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Niamh McAnally: And we're going to have a big wedding over in Ireland. His family was going

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Niamh McAnally: to come over. and my family would be there. But of course, then COVID hit.

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Niamh McAnally: So it took another year and a half. We eventually, we ended up doing a legal

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Niamh McAnally: ceremony down in Antigua where we were.

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Niamh McAnally: And then about 18 months later, we were able to have a wedding,

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Niamh McAnally: but it was still quarantine time.

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Niamh McAnally: So we flew to Ireland and we had a wedding reception for my family and then

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Niamh McAnally: flew back to America and had one a week later.

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Niamh McAnally: Same outfits, everything, just hiked them up, put them on the plane and off

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Niamh McAnally: we went. And we did another wedding ceremony in America for his family.

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Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. I love it. Well, that is quite the overview of this journey.

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Niamh McAnally: Just the overview. Sorry about that.

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Kevin Lowe: Oh, my goodness. That is insane. So I'm so excited. Let's go back a little bit.

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Kevin Lowe: And I'm curious about when you finally you went off and you became doing a scuba

00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:52.780

Kevin Lowe: diving. and then that kind of just opened the door to all these new adventures.

00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:59.280

Kevin Lowe: What did your family think of you leaving this industry that they all were in?

00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:02.360

Kevin Lowe: Did they think you were crazy or were they in full support?

00:15:02.580 --> 00:15:05.680

Niamh McAnally: I think everybody I know thinks I'm crazy most of the time.

00:15:09.740 --> 00:15:15.800

Niamh McAnally: I'll tell you when the crazy comments came for sure, it was when I said I was

00:15:15.800 --> 00:15:19.220

Niamh McAnally: going to go to sea with a man I'd never met before. That was like definitely

00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:20.880

Niamh McAnally: on the top of the crazy list for them.

00:15:21.060 --> 00:15:24.360

Niamh McAnally: They said to me like, you know, how do you know he's not an axe murderer?

00:15:24.860 --> 00:15:29.020

Niamh McAnally: And what I didn't know at the time, what we've since laughed about,

00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:33.260

Niamh McAnally: is that his friends were saying to him, you're taking on somebody you never met.

00:15:33.420 --> 00:15:36.120

Niamh McAnally: How do you know this woman isn't a modern day pirate?

00:15:36.380 --> 00:15:39.520

Niamh McAnally: I'm going to take your boat away from you when we're 12 miles offshore.

00:15:43.220 --> 00:15:47.840

Niamh McAnally: And you know i'll tell you what kevin the thing that all of those comments really

00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:51.080

Niamh McAnally: resonated with me and something a decision i've made in my life,

00:15:51.947 --> 00:15:56.067

Niamh McAnally: People out of the best interest, maybe they think they have your best interest

00:15:56.067 --> 00:15:59.007

Niamh McAnally: at heart and say, oh, be careful with that or you shouldn't do this or,

00:15:59.067 --> 00:16:02.127

Niamh McAnally: you know, you might get hurt there, that kind of thing.

00:16:02.627 --> 00:16:09.507

Niamh McAnally: If you allow somebody else's fears infect you, you'll get stuck.

00:16:09.927 --> 00:16:13.967

Niamh McAnally: You won't go, you'll get stunted. You won't be going and doing the things that

00:16:13.967 --> 00:16:16.647

Niamh McAnally: your heart sings and wants you to do.

00:16:16.847 --> 00:16:19.727

Niamh McAnally: Do you know what I mean? so I've I took a

00:16:19.727 --> 00:16:22.367

Niamh McAnally: while to learn that in life because you know early on we kind of

00:16:22.367 --> 00:16:25.767

Niamh McAnally: do things we should do we we ought to do for

00:16:25.767 --> 00:16:28.667

Niamh McAnally: maybe for approval maybe for people say

00:16:28.667 --> 00:16:31.567

Niamh McAnally: this is the best idea for you you know and until

00:16:31.567 --> 00:16:35.347

Niamh McAnally: such time as you step into your own persona

00:16:35.347 --> 00:16:40.567

Niamh McAnally: and listen to your intuition listen to who you really are and uncover all of

00:16:40.567 --> 00:16:45.447

Niamh McAnally: that you can allow that to stop you and And that's one of the beautiful things

00:16:45.447 --> 00:16:49.847

Niamh McAnally: that I've learned from traveling is that now I just listen to my own gut and

00:16:49.847 --> 00:16:51.647

Niamh McAnally: it really hasn't steered me wrong.

00:16:52.187 --> 00:16:58.787

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I want to ask questions and we're going to dive into

00:16:58.787 --> 00:17:05.627

Kevin Lowe: this just crazy thing of going sailing with a stranger and then turned into

00:17:05.627 --> 00:17:07.847

Kevin Lowe: just this beautiful love story on the sea.

00:17:07.847 --> 00:17:13.547

Kevin Lowe: But I feel as though it's important for us to back up a little bit in your story

00:17:13.547 --> 00:17:18.787

Kevin Lowe: because you were involved in another relationship. You were actually married before.

00:17:19.727 --> 00:17:19.887

Niamh McAnally: Right.

00:17:20.127 --> 00:17:23.107

Kevin Lowe: Will you talk to me a little bit about that chapter in your story?

00:17:23.787 --> 00:17:29.527

Niamh McAnally: Sure. I was married. And one of the things the reason I ended up getting married

00:17:29.527 --> 00:17:35.207

Niamh McAnally: was because I was in my 30s and I had that baby clock ticking away in my brain.

00:17:35.207 --> 00:17:37.767

Niamh McAnally: You know, I wanted to be a mother.

00:17:37.947 --> 00:17:44.347

Niamh McAnally: I wanted to have children. I wanted to have a family and I hadn't quite met the right person for me.

00:17:44.527 --> 00:17:49.447

Niamh McAnally: And then I got into this relationship and, you know, it was all very fine,

00:17:49.447 --> 00:17:53.107

Niamh McAnally: but I kind of had a feeling it wasn't the right relationship for me.

00:17:53.307 --> 00:17:58.507

Niamh McAnally: And yet I, the wedding invitations had been sent out and I went ahead with it.

00:17:58.507 --> 00:17:59.727

Niamh McAnally: But here's the interesting thing.

00:18:00.087 --> 00:18:04.367

Niamh McAnally: I grew up in a country and at the time there was no divorce in Ireland.

00:18:04.807 --> 00:18:08.487

Niamh McAnally: In fact, it didn't come in on a limited version of it came in in 1994.

00:18:09.607 --> 00:18:13.747

Niamh McAnally: So I grew up where, you know, you got married and that was it.

00:18:13.887 --> 00:18:15.607

Niamh McAnally: And there was always an expression.

00:18:15.767 --> 00:18:18.067

Niamh McAnally: You was like, oh, you've made your bed. Now you lie on it.

00:18:18.627 --> 00:18:24.427

Niamh McAnally: And that was drilled into me subconsciously, consciously and all through this relationship.

00:18:25.598 --> 00:18:30.478

Niamh McAnally: I couldn't give myself permission to leave, even though I was married in America.

00:18:30.478 --> 00:18:32.418

Niamh McAnally: I was living in America at the time.

00:18:32.598 --> 00:18:35.618

Niamh McAnally: It would have been easy enough to go get a divorce if you needed to.

00:18:36.118 --> 00:18:41.758

Niamh McAnally: So it took an awful lot for me to say, this is not right for me.

00:18:42.178 --> 00:18:46.678

Niamh McAnally: I was sublimating who I was as a human being in order to make it work.

00:18:46.818 --> 00:18:49.738

Niamh McAnally: We were just not the right two people being together.

00:18:50.358 --> 00:18:55.818

Niamh McAnally: And I went to various different counseling sessions. and one woman,

00:18:56.058 --> 00:19:00.458

Niamh McAnally: a lady called Dana Vince, I know she won't mind me sharing her name of Healing

00:19:00.458 --> 00:19:02.718

Niamh McAnally: Hearts Counseling. She was in Florida at the time.

00:19:02.818 --> 00:19:06.418

Niamh McAnally: She's actually up in Tennessee now and she's a wonderful counselor.

00:19:06.978 --> 00:19:12.078

Niamh McAnally: But she listened to me for about two or three sessions. And one day she said,

00:19:12.158 --> 00:19:16.498

Niamh McAnally: I'm not telling you which is the right direction for you to go in here.

00:19:16.958 --> 00:19:22.618

Niamh McAnally: But if this is your decision. And if you do decide this is not the right marriage

00:19:22.618 --> 00:19:27.578

Niamh McAnally: for you, why wait one more day to be happy?

00:19:28.718 --> 00:19:38.418

Niamh McAnally: And somehow that just one question really penetrated all my sort of self-imposed jail, if you like.

00:19:38.878 --> 00:19:43.138

Niamh McAnally: And I really heard her and I thought, yes, I know this isn't right.

00:19:43.238 --> 00:19:46.938

Niamh McAnally: In fact, I knew like very early on in the marriage, it wasn't the right marriage for me.

00:19:47.158 --> 00:19:51.038

Niamh McAnally: And, but I date with that kind of cultural traditions, you know,

00:19:51.118 --> 00:19:53.418

Niamh McAnally: and internal chatter going on.

00:19:53.858 --> 00:19:57.318

Niamh McAnally: And once I got to that place, I went, yes, it's it's OK.

00:19:57.678 --> 00:20:01.258

Niamh McAnally: And, you know, why wait one more day to be happy? This is not good for you.

00:20:01.438 --> 00:20:04.978

Niamh McAnally: And ultimately, it's not going to be good for the other person if you're not

00:20:04.978 --> 00:20:06.538

Niamh McAnally: being the best version of yourself.

00:20:07.318 --> 00:20:12.598

Niamh McAnally: So and that's that's made the decision for me that I had to leave that marriage.

00:20:12.938 --> 00:20:14.978

Kevin Lowe: How long were you in that relationship?

00:20:15.298 --> 00:20:17.438

Niamh McAnally: I was married for, what, eight and a half years.

00:20:17.958 --> 00:20:18.338

Kevin Lowe: Wow.

00:20:18.678 --> 00:20:19.798

Niamh McAnally: Yeah, I'm a slow learner.

00:20:23.738 --> 00:20:29.758

Kevin Lowe: You know what? I think the truth is, is that when we're stuck in a situation

00:20:29.758 --> 00:20:34.378

Kevin Lowe: like that and you don't know what else to do, you just do it. You're just there.

00:20:34.758 --> 00:20:39.678

Kevin Lowe: And before you know it, it's not until you get so far down the road that you

00:20:39.678 --> 00:20:44.038

Kevin Lowe: look back and you think, my gosh, what am I doing? I've just wasted all this time.

00:20:44.438 --> 00:20:46.778

Niamh McAnally: Yeah. And, you know, people have asked me that, like, you know,

00:20:46.818 --> 00:20:48.678

Niamh McAnally: if you go back in your life, what would you do differently?

00:20:49.498 --> 00:20:54.458

Niamh McAnally: But you know what? That experience for me is part of my DNA now.

00:20:54.638 --> 00:20:58.398

Niamh McAnally: It's part of who I have become, the lessons I learned during that experience.

00:20:58.518 --> 00:21:00.658

Niamh McAnally: So I wouldn't change it for the world. You know what I mean?

00:21:00.838 --> 00:21:06.438

Niamh McAnally: It's like that was presented to me in such a way that it's part of who I am.

00:21:06.438 --> 00:21:12.698

Niamh McAnally: And it also knowing what I knew then, once that moment came when I was there

00:21:12.698 --> 00:21:16.558

Niamh McAnally: so long, if you like this, I started out in my 30s and when I was in that relationship

00:21:16.558 --> 00:21:20.898

Niamh McAnally: so long, by the end of it, at that stage, it was too late for babies anyway.

00:21:21.817 --> 00:21:26.977

Niamh McAnally: And when I got to that place and I realized I'm not going to be a mother and

00:21:26.977 --> 00:21:32.077

Niamh McAnally: I don't have a partner either, and I'm certainly not going to start trying to do this by myself.

00:21:32.557 --> 00:21:36.197

Niamh McAnally: Once I got to that, I was, you know, I was upset naturally enough.

00:21:36.357 --> 00:21:39.797

Niamh McAnally: It was something I wanted in my life, but now I didn't have the opportunity.

00:21:40.817 --> 00:21:44.757

Niamh McAnally: I said, I can either stay here boohooing about this for a while,

00:21:44.757 --> 00:21:48.037

Niamh McAnally: or I can try and look at it from a different aspect.

00:21:48.037 --> 00:21:52.617

Niamh McAnally: And what I did was I said, okay, if I can't have children,

00:21:53.117 --> 00:22:00.317

Niamh McAnally: what is it I can do that mothers and family, you know, parents that have children

00:22:00.317 --> 00:22:06.457

Niamh McAnally: and they're raising them and all those responsibilities, what is it I can do that they cannot do?

00:22:06.457 --> 00:22:09.797

Niamh McAnally: And that's when the answer of long-term travel

00:22:09.797 --> 00:22:12.637

Niamh McAnally: came to me because i'd always wanted to travel so i i

00:22:12.637 --> 00:22:15.357

Niamh McAnally: mean i could take off i was independent i was just

00:22:15.357 --> 00:22:19.577

Niamh McAnally: me you know i didn't have the responsibility of raising family at that point

00:22:19.577 --> 00:22:23.997

Niamh McAnally: so i thought that's what i had to do and from then on every time i came across

00:22:23.997 --> 00:22:29.057

Niamh McAnally: a situation that on the surface didn't look good i would say okay well what's

00:22:29.057 --> 00:22:34.917

Niamh McAnally: the gift in this and if i couldn't find a gift i would say okay well what's the lesson hmm.

00:22:34.917 --> 00:22:36.977

Kevin Lowe: That is amazing

00:22:36.977 --> 00:22:40.357

Niamh McAnally: Things go wrong in our lives and we're all tested

00:22:40.357 --> 00:22:43.277

Niamh McAnally: in various different ways and some can

00:22:43.277 --> 00:22:47.017

Niamh McAnally: be minor some can be major and the

00:22:47.017 --> 00:22:49.957

Niamh McAnally: only way i i have found to get through those times

00:22:49.957 --> 00:22:54.377

Niamh McAnally: is to try and flip it on its head and look for something look for some kind

00:22:54.377 --> 00:22:58.077

Niamh McAnally: of good in it what is the gift there's a gift here for me somewhere and i mean

00:22:58.077 --> 00:23:01.437

Niamh McAnally: it could be as simple as missing your airplane you know are you going to meet

00:23:01.437 --> 00:23:05.397

Niamh McAnally: somebody else sitting in the waiting room or in the lounge area that you wouldn't

00:23:05.397 --> 00:23:07.477

Niamh McAnally: have met otherwise, you know, those kind of things.

00:23:07.857 --> 00:23:11.097

Niamh McAnally: And if I can't find a gift, I've got to find a lesson.

00:23:11.517 --> 00:23:15.837

Niamh McAnally: You know, there's got to be some reason this is happening for me and not to me.

00:23:17.317 --> 00:23:23.657

Kevin Lowe: I hope anyone and everyone listening to this just took note of that because I mean,

00:23:23.857 --> 00:23:28.757

Kevin Lowe: that right there is, I think, reason enough for a lot of people who click play

00:23:28.757 --> 00:23:32.377

Kevin Lowe: on this episode is they need to hear what you just said. That's powerful.

00:23:32.877 --> 00:23:36.217

Niamh McAnally: Great. Well, that's good. I mean, and that's the other reason I wrote a memoir

00:23:36.217 --> 00:23:40.557

Niamh McAnally: was to try and use my story not to write a book about, oh, me, me, me.

00:23:41.262 --> 00:23:46.462

Niamh McAnally: But to use my story and if any of the stuff that I've been through on that journey

00:23:46.462 --> 00:23:49.162

Niamh McAnally: resonates and is helpful for somebody else.

00:23:49.302 --> 00:23:51.822

Niamh McAnally: And I mean, that's why I went quite deep and quite personal,

00:23:52.142 --> 00:23:56.302

Niamh McAnally: you know, quite vulnerable, if you like, was to try and share that story if

00:23:56.302 --> 00:23:57.702

Niamh McAnally: it was helpful for somebody else.

00:23:58.222 --> 00:24:05.462

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. So if I understand correctly, it would be then that you embark

00:24:05.462 --> 00:24:07.102

Kevin Lowe: on the year of traveling.

00:24:07.462 --> 00:24:11.862

Niamh McAnally: Yeah, it was a little time later. I kind of rattled around for about two years

00:24:11.862 --> 00:24:14.722

Niamh McAnally: in America trying to find out where my niche was.

00:24:15.262 --> 00:24:19.682

Niamh McAnally: And I just couldn't settle. You know what I mean? I tried living in various

00:24:19.682 --> 00:24:23.582

Niamh McAnally: places. I had been in CaliforNiahm. I'd been back in Florida. I'd been in Texas.

00:24:23.582 --> 00:24:27.562

Niamh McAnally: I was running around the country trying to find my feet, if you like.

00:24:28.102 --> 00:24:34.522

Niamh McAnally: And I ended up down in Fiji on a volunteer program. I was down there for about four months, maybe.

00:24:35.262 --> 00:24:41.322

Niamh McAnally: And I got called back to Los Angeles to help somebody and help them drive.

00:24:41.502 --> 00:24:44.782

Niamh McAnally: They'd been in an accident and was trying to help drive them to and from work.

00:24:44.842 --> 00:24:50.042

Niamh McAnally: And I was on the road in LA where driving is a challenge.

00:24:50.602 --> 00:24:54.602

Niamh McAnally: And, you know, the traffic was crazy. And I, one day I was in the car and I

00:24:54.602 --> 00:24:57.082

Niamh McAnally: said, Oh, get me on an Island without cars.

00:24:59.222 --> 00:25:01.942

Niamh McAnally: And I went back home and you know

00:25:01.942 --> 00:25:04.622

Niamh McAnally: what I did the the absolutely normal only thing

00:25:04.622 --> 00:25:12.442

Niamh McAnally: you could think of doing was I I googled islands without cars and believe it

00:25:12.442 --> 00:25:16.622

Niamh McAnally: or not oh Google said I'll help you out there here's three islands that don't

00:25:16.622 --> 00:25:21.022

Niamh McAnally: have cars or don't have any roads per se and there was three of them there was

00:25:21.022 --> 00:25:24.482

Niamh McAnally: one in Greece called Hydra or Hydra is probably called

00:25:24.902 --> 00:25:27.582

Niamh McAnally: And there was two in the English Channel Islands.

00:25:27.682 --> 00:25:29.762

Niamh McAnally: And that's how I ended up finding Sark.

00:25:30.242 --> 00:25:35.642

Niamh McAnally: So that's when I thought, OK, time to pack up in America and head back across the Atlantic.

00:25:35.922 --> 00:25:39.162

Niamh McAnally: And my mother was still alive at the time and I wanted to be a little bit closer.

00:25:39.842 --> 00:25:42.982

Niamh McAnally: So I moved to Sark. Now, the irony of that is.

00:25:44.080 --> 00:25:47.480

Niamh McAnally: On Sark, you have to get a ferry to Guernsey. From Guernsey,

00:25:47.500 --> 00:25:51.140

Niamh McAnally: you have to fly to Southampton or London. Then you got another plane to get to Dublin.

00:25:51.780 --> 00:25:55.600

Niamh McAnally: I, when I was in Florida, could have jumped on a plane in Orlando and been in

00:25:55.600 --> 00:25:57.700

Niamh McAnally: Dublin in eight hours much faster, you know?

00:25:58.180 --> 00:26:01.420

Niamh McAnally: But that's why I was living there. I was living there for about five years.

00:26:01.560 --> 00:26:05.480

Niamh McAnally: And it was then I ended up doing this world travel after those hotels closed.

00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:12.000

Kevin Lowe: Okay. Wow. I love how all these pieces. So, I mean, it's rough.

00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:15.420

Kevin Lowe: It's rough when you look at it from the big picture, but when you look at it

00:26:15.420 --> 00:26:18.820

Kevin Lowe: kind of from today, it all kind of keeps piecing itself together.

00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:21.160

Kevin Lowe: One step leading to another.

00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:29.280

Niamh McAnally: Exactly. Exactly. And all those different professions that I did, they all end all along.

00:26:29.540 --> 00:26:34.860

Niamh McAnally: I have been a writer, but I haven't started being a professional writer until

00:26:34.860 --> 00:26:38.180

Niamh McAnally: 2016, until I got on that sailboat with Gary.

00:26:38.180 --> 00:26:42.680

Niamh McAnally: Because I showed him one of my short stories from back in the day and he looked

00:26:42.680 --> 00:26:46.980

Niamh McAnally: at me because oh Niahmmh you've got to do this full time so I went yeah really

00:26:46.980 --> 00:26:50.880

Niamh McAnally: and on the boat yes I had a little bit of time but most of the time it was like

00:26:50.880 --> 00:26:53.300

Niamh McAnally: galley slave deck duties you know hoist this,

00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:56.940

Niamh McAnally: hang on to that get under the boat start scraping the

00:26:56.940 --> 00:26:59.840

Niamh McAnally: barnacles off so it was a it's a busy busy time

00:26:59.840 --> 00:27:02.700

Niamh McAnally: but anyway I started writing full time then on the

00:27:02.700 --> 00:27:07.240

Niamh McAnally: boat and I started writing my memoir following sunshine and the

00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:10.140

Niamh McAnally: interesting thing all these careers all this

00:27:10.140 --> 00:27:12.940

Niamh McAnally: experience and everybody has it in the same way all

00:27:12.940 --> 00:27:15.820

Niamh McAnally: your life experience all sum up into who you

00:27:15.820 --> 00:27:20.820

Niamh McAnally: are today and and also having worked in five different industries i've got a

00:27:20.820 --> 00:27:24.320

Niamh McAnally: lot of things to draw for so so if i start writing novels now instead of true

00:27:24.320 --> 00:27:29.560

Niamh McAnally: stories you know i'll have a ton of stuff i have a in fact a friend of mine

00:27:29.560 --> 00:27:33.040

Niamh McAnally: gave me a mug that says be careful or you'll end up in my book.

00:27:35.300 --> 00:27:42.140

Kevin Lowe: That is great wow well i'm curious to know before we continue

00:27:42.964 --> 00:27:49.384

Kevin Lowe: I want to hear the full story about how you came to meet Gary on this boat.

00:27:49.844 --> 00:27:51.844

Kevin Lowe: Tell me the story of how this whole thing came about.

00:27:52.164 --> 00:27:56.604

Niamh McAnally: Well, it was at the end of the year volunteer traveling.

00:27:56.904 --> 00:28:00.624

Niamh McAnally: He was looking for a volunteer because he was a solo saver.

00:28:00.784 --> 00:28:06.244

Niamh McAnally: He had come out of a long-term marriage and a long-term land-based career. He was an entrepreneur.

00:28:07.364 --> 00:28:10.544

Niamh McAnally: And he actually, believe it or not, in terms of counseling,

00:28:10.804 --> 00:28:13.924

Niamh McAnally: he had gone to talk to a counselor as well and at the time

00:28:13.924 --> 00:28:16.764

Niamh McAnally: apparently they said to him oh you know

00:28:16.764 --> 00:28:19.844

Niamh McAnally: 80 is not the end of the world and it's not necessarily the

00:28:19.844 --> 00:28:22.564

Niamh McAnally: end of your life but you know whatever age he was at

00:28:22.564 --> 00:28:25.684

Niamh McAnally: that time was in his 60s he said um you know how

00:28:25.684 --> 00:28:30.984

Niamh McAnally: would you want to spend the next 10 to 20 years of your life and he said i there's

00:28:30.984 --> 00:28:35.564

Niamh McAnally: things i want to go and do etc so he bought a boat learned how to sail although

00:28:35.564 --> 00:28:39.804

Niamh McAnally: in fairness he learned how to sail first and then bought the boat but but again

00:28:39.804 --> 00:28:43.124

Niamh McAnally: somebody who was embracing something later in life and saying,

00:28:43.304 --> 00:28:46.864

Niamh McAnally: you know, I can learn it's not over just because I'm in my sixties. It's not all over.

00:28:47.544 --> 00:28:52.064

Niamh McAnally: And he spent about six months fixing the boat up and getting it ready.

00:28:52.204 --> 00:28:57.504

Niamh McAnally: And he was in Florida and he needs some crew and he advertised and I saw it

00:28:57.504 --> 00:29:01.384

Niamh McAnally: and I went, Oh, I've always all along. I always wanted to work at sea.

00:29:01.624 --> 00:29:04.484

Niamh McAnally: And funnily enough, here's is a funny story for you.

00:29:05.284 --> 00:29:12.684

Niamh McAnally: Once upon a time, I applied for a job on a cruise line that did the rivers in America.

00:29:13.004 --> 00:29:17.084

Niamh McAnally: And I got to second interview and yes, all my experience in hotels,

00:29:17.304 --> 00:29:21.564

Niamh McAnally: all my experience on boats, you know, working in scuba diving and working on

00:29:21.564 --> 00:29:23.224

Niamh McAnally: the boats, everything was going great.

00:29:23.404 --> 00:29:27.604

Niamh McAnally: And then they said to me, right, the last thing we need from you is your transcripts

00:29:27.604 --> 00:29:30.644

Niamh McAnally: from your bachelor's degree. And I'm like,

00:29:31.253 --> 00:29:35.273

Niamh McAnally: OK, I want to say, but I went to the University of Life.

00:29:35.433 --> 00:29:39.073

Niamh McAnally: You know what I mean? I don't have that one piece of paper. I have tons of certificates

00:29:39.073 --> 00:29:41.233

Niamh McAnally: and diplomas in all sorts of industries,

00:29:41.513 --> 00:29:45.673

Niamh McAnally: including one I forgot to tell you about, which is for 10 years,

00:29:45.813 --> 00:29:50.353

Niamh McAnally: I was a retirement financial advisor and insurance agent for life,

00:29:50.373 --> 00:29:52.713

Niamh McAnally: health and all that good stuff, long term care.

00:29:53.333 --> 00:29:57.533

Niamh McAnally: And I mean, that was state exams. I had all these pieces of paper that were

00:29:57.533 --> 00:30:00.693

Niamh McAnally: exams, but they weren't all tied up in a bow in a bachelor's degree.

00:30:00.873 --> 00:30:02.953

Niamh McAnally: And they said, well, I'm sorry, we can't hire you.

00:30:03.253 --> 00:30:09.553

Niamh McAnally: And I went, OK. And they would sooner hire a 21 or 22 year old with zero life

00:30:09.553 --> 00:30:12.093

Niamh McAnally: experience, but had that piece of paper.

00:30:13.213 --> 00:30:15.833

Niamh McAnally: And from that, I was like, oh, I always want to work a seat.

00:30:15.933 --> 00:30:16.893

Niamh McAnally: This is not going to work out.

00:30:17.013 --> 00:30:20.793

Niamh McAnally: And so then when that volunteer job came up with Gary, I went,

00:30:21.073 --> 00:30:23.873

Niamh McAnally: oh, here's my chance. You know, I could do this for a month and just live on

00:30:23.873 --> 00:30:26.813

Niamh McAnally: the ocean and see what it's like. So that's how that happened.

00:30:27.333 --> 00:30:32.973

Kevin Lowe: Okay. Interesting. I am so glad that they turned you down on that river cruise.

00:30:34.433 --> 00:30:39.573

Niamh McAnally: You know, it's really funny. You should say that only about a week ago we were talking.

00:30:39.893 --> 00:30:45.873

Niamh McAnally: I don't know if you've heard of the movie Sliding Doors, where they set up this

00:30:45.873 --> 00:30:50.373

Niamh McAnally: premise where this person was actually going down a tube, you know,

00:30:50.433 --> 00:30:53.813

Niamh McAnally: underground to get on a tube or a metro or something like that.

00:30:53.933 --> 00:30:58.373

Niamh McAnally: And somebody bumps into them on the way down the stairs and they missed that train.

00:30:59.053 --> 00:31:04.093

Niamh McAnally: And the story unfolds in two versions. One is their life as it would have happened

00:31:04.093 --> 00:31:05.293

Niamh McAnally: had they got on the train.

00:31:05.453 --> 00:31:09.273

Niamh McAnally: And the other was the life that happened because they didn't get on the train.

00:31:09.793 --> 00:31:14.713

Niamh McAnally: Anyway, the movie is called Sliding Doors. And I was talking to Gary recently about sliding doors.

00:31:14.733 --> 00:31:18.293

Niamh McAnally: And I said to him, You know, if I had to have the bachelor's degree,

00:31:18.533 --> 00:31:22.393

Niamh McAnally: I would have been working on that cruise line and we would never have met.

00:31:23.007 --> 00:31:27.667

Niamh McAnally: And then we started talking, well, would we or would we have met in a different way?

00:31:28.047 --> 00:31:31.827

Niamh McAnally: And the really funny thing, remember, I was telling you I was in Los Angeles

00:31:31.827 --> 00:31:37.047

Niamh McAnally: and I was driving somebody around and I was actually staying in Marina del Rey,

00:31:37.207 --> 00:31:40.127

Niamh McAnally: which is the harbor out there on in Los Angeles.

00:31:40.607 --> 00:31:45.147

Niamh McAnally: At the same time that Gary was looking for a boat, but we never met.

00:31:48.367 --> 00:31:54.307

Niamh McAnally: So amazing. Isn't it? And the whole thing about that is we weren't meant to meet at that point.

00:31:54.447 --> 00:31:58.767

Niamh McAnally: And people have said to me, because we have such an incredible relationship,

00:31:58.767 --> 00:32:02.627

Niamh McAnally: and then they joke and laugh, oh, you little newlyweds, you make us sick.

00:32:02.807 --> 00:32:07.507

Niamh McAnally: But the funny thing about it is, is neither of us were ready to meet the other

00:32:07.507 --> 00:32:09.507

Niamh McAnally: person at that time in our lives.

00:32:09.507 --> 00:32:13.827

Niamh McAnally: We both had our own journeys and we had our own baggage to work out.

00:32:14.127 --> 00:32:18.667

Niamh McAnally: And it wasn't until we were both ready. And I think that's what's making this

00:32:18.667 --> 00:32:21.367

Niamh McAnally: particular relationship work really, really well.

00:32:21.707 --> 00:32:24.547

Niamh McAnally: We've come into it as whole human beings.

00:32:25.067 --> 00:32:28.907

Niamh McAnally: And there's three of us now. There's a me, there's a you, and there's an us.

00:32:29.267 --> 00:32:33.407

Niamh McAnally: Rather than you hear that expression, oh, my better half or the other half of

00:32:33.407 --> 00:32:34.767

Niamh McAnally: me, all that kind of stuff.

00:32:34.907 --> 00:32:41.187

Niamh McAnally: But you need to be your own individual person and not bring too much suitcases

00:32:41.187 --> 00:32:42.407

Niamh McAnally: with you into the relationship.

00:32:42.407 --> 00:32:51.347

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm curious what happened after that month sailing trip with Gary.

00:32:53.007 --> 00:32:57.807

Niamh McAnally: Well, I stayed on for about four months.

00:32:58.147 --> 00:33:03.267

Niamh McAnally: And because the reason I didn't go back to work immediately was because I was

00:33:03.267 --> 00:33:09.207

Niamh McAnally: heading to Ireland for a family reunion that summer. And as time was going on.

00:33:09.467 --> 00:33:13.027

Niamh McAnally: I was not, I didn't get a job for, you know, it was, it was pretty difficult

00:33:13.027 --> 00:33:15.447

Niamh McAnally: trying to do interviews while I was on the vote originally.

00:33:15.827 --> 00:33:20.367

Niamh McAnally: And I wasn't getting hired or nothing was coming through. So I sort of said, I'd stay on.

00:33:20.847 --> 00:33:24.367

Niamh McAnally: And interesting, back to the people, and it wasn't family, but it was friends

00:33:24.367 --> 00:33:27.147

Niamh McAnally: were saying to me, you need to come back to America. You need to settle down.

00:33:27.227 --> 00:33:28.507

Niamh McAnally: You need to get a job. You need to do this.

00:33:28.807 --> 00:33:32.287

Niamh McAnally: And I started to think about it. I said, well, what would I do if I went back

00:33:32.287 --> 00:33:35.847

Niamh McAnally: and earned a ton of money? What would I do with my life eventually when it's time to retire.

00:33:36.107 --> 00:33:38.767

Niamh McAnally: I know I'd buy a sailboat and go to sea.

00:33:41.107 --> 00:33:45.427

Niamh McAnally: And then I thought, I'm already here. Why would I give it up right now? Right.

00:33:45.747 --> 00:33:49.727

Niamh McAnally: So we ended up staying on the boat together for four months.

00:33:49.727 --> 00:33:52.967

Niamh McAnally: And then he, we brought the boat back to him. I went all the way down to the

00:33:52.967 --> 00:33:55.147

Niamh McAnally: bottom of the Bahamas and came back up to America.

00:33:55.847 --> 00:33:59.567

Niamh McAnally: And he and I said goodbye to each other.

00:33:59.927 --> 00:34:04.187

Niamh McAnally: He was like, you know, I'm not interested in having a long-term relationship.

00:34:04.367 --> 00:34:08.127

Niamh McAnally: I've been in a long-term marriage. I just, you know, I need some space and time

00:34:08.127 --> 00:34:10.127

Niamh McAnally: and I'm not ready to commit to relationship.

00:34:10.800 --> 00:34:16.920

Niamh McAnally: And I totally got that, even though I knew he was such a special human being.

00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:21.760

Niamh McAnally: But for the first time in my life, I was able to let somebody go out of my life

00:34:21.760 --> 00:34:23.640

Niamh McAnally: with absolutely no qualms.

00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:28.180

Niamh McAnally: I was sad, but I wasn't clinging, if you know what I mean. Yes.

00:34:28.420 --> 00:34:32.700

Niamh McAnally: And I just said, you know what, Niahmmh, there but for the grace of God,

00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:36.060

Niamh McAnally: there goes one of the best people out of your life. However,

00:34:36.620 --> 00:34:41.360

Niamh McAnally: you're a better human being as a result of meeting him and being with him for four months.

00:34:42.420 --> 00:34:47.240

Niamh McAnally: And you know what? Once I went through that process, it wasn't 10 minutes later

00:34:47.240 --> 00:34:51.860

Niamh McAnally: and the phone rings and it's Gary calling me from Los Angeles.

00:34:52.180 --> 00:34:56.640

Niamh McAnally: Now, the hilarious part is I was still living on his boat in the marina.

00:34:56.800 --> 00:35:03.540

Niamh McAnally: I was driving his car, you know, because he said, oh, well, if you're not getting

00:35:03.540 --> 00:35:04.520

Niamh McAnally: a job between now and then,

00:35:04.700 --> 00:35:07.520

Niamh McAnally: you know, the boat's going to be in the marina you might as well stay on it that's fine

00:35:07.520 --> 00:35:10.320

Niamh McAnally: and i said oh i can still volunteer so i was working like five

00:35:10.320 --> 00:35:13.180

Niamh McAnally: hours in the morning you know polishing the stainless steel doing all

00:35:13.180 --> 00:35:16.140

Niamh McAnally: that good stuff and then writing in the afternoons and so

00:35:16.140 --> 00:35:19.060

Niamh McAnally: he calls me up and he said he first of all said what year did your father

00:35:19.060 --> 00:35:22.400

Niamh McAnally: die and i went that's a funny kind of question and

00:35:22.400 --> 00:35:26.420

Niamh McAnally: i said 1989 why and he says oh well i'm sitting here with some friends and one

00:35:26.420 --> 00:35:29.540

Niamh McAnally: of them is an actress and she thinks she worked with your dad and i'm thinking

00:35:29.540 --> 00:35:36.620

Niamh McAnally: hmm here's a guy who is not into relationships happens to be back with his friends

00:35:36.620 --> 00:35:39.180

Niamh McAnally: in califorNiamhtalking about who.

00:35:41.860 --> 00:35:44.600

Niamh McAnally: And i in my mind i didn't say to him i in my mind i

00:35:44.600 --> 00:35:47.860

Niamh McAnally: went you are so busted you know so so

00:35:47.860 --> 00:35:51.220

Niamh McAnally: anyway long story short he decided to come

00:35:51.220 --> 00:35:53.960

Niamh McAnally: back to take his boat out and he says i'm coming back here to

00:35:53.960 --> 00:35:56.980

Niamh McAnally: take the boat and i said okay no problem i thought i'll find another volunteer project

00:35:56.980 --> 00:36:00.120

Niamh McAnally: for the length of time before i go to ireland he

00:36:00.120 --> 00:36:03.020

Niamh McAnally: said well i'm actually taking it up the east coast of america do you

00:36:03.020 --> 00:36:05.940

Niamh McAnally: want to come sail with me and i went okay sure what

00:36:05.940 --> 00:36:08.600

Niamh McAnally: why not right and he says up to new

00:36:08.600 --> 00:36:12.260

Niamh McAnally: jersey and i said what's in new jersey and he said newark and there's a non-stop

00:36:12.260 --> 00:36:16.940

Niamh McAnally: flight to dublin ireland and i went uh-huh because i had previously invited

00:36:16.940 --> 00:36:22.240

Niamh McAnally: him to come to ireland but in conversation since i learned he was like i'd love

00:36:22.240 --> 00:36:24.440

Niamh McAnally: to go to ireland but i can't go to ireland because all our family's going to

00:36:24.440 --> 00:36:27.040

Niamh McAnally: be there and there's some of our friends are going to be there what would say about me? Oh my God.

00:36:27.980 --> 00:36:32.520

Niamh McAnally: So anyway, he did end up coming back.

00:36:32.900 --> 00:36:36.160

Niamh McAnally: But the funny thing is when he came back and we started sailing,

00:36:36.360 --> 00:36:40.220

Niamh McAnally: I thought initially that meant that he was like, okay, ready,

00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:43.200

Niamh McAnally: that there was something between us and that it would continue.

00:36:43.760 --> 00:36:46.780

Niamh McAnally: And when he got off the airplane, I went to pick him up in his car,

00:36:46.900 --> 00:36:48.580

Niamh McAnally: mind you, when I went to pick him up,

00:36:48.780 --> 00:36:56.100

Niamh McAnally: I looked in his eyes and I saw he wasn't ready and he he was back and we've

00:36:56.100 --> 00:37:01.480

Niamh McAnally: since talked about it and sure enough his his feeling at the time was he wasn't

00:37:01.480 --> 00:37:05.780

Niamh McAnally: ready to commit but he wasn't ready to let me go either um.

00:37:06.867 --> 00:37:11.147

Niamh McAnally: And so we basically took it a day at a time. And, you know, that phrase where

00:37:11.147 --> 00:37:13.187

Niamh McAnally: I like you pretty much, let's see how this goes.

00:37:13.627 --> 00:37:17.427

Niamh McAnally: And that's what we've done. And believe it or not, every day since that,

00:37:17.707 --> 00:37:21.147

Niamh McAnally: or at least on a weekly basis, we check in with each other and say,

00:37:21.247 --> 00:37:22.647

Niamh McAnally: do you still want to be with me? Yeah.

00:37:22.967 --> 00:37:25.607

Niamh McAnally: How's it going? We need to connect. No, really, we do.

00:37:28.687 --> 00:37:32.587

Niamh McAnally: Yeah. And, you know, it keeps it fresh. It keeps us ticking over.

00:37:32.587 --> 00:37:35.707

Niamh McAnally: And there's times, especially now that we're kind of half, well,

00:37:35.827 --> 00:37:39.007

Niamh McAnally: we are land-based at the moment, even though we go out in the water on a smaller

00:37:39.007 --> 00:37:45.027

Niamh McAnally: boat, it really helps us to notice when we're not fully connected, you know?

00:37:45.327 --> 00:37:50.407

Niamh McAnally: Like, you live in a 40-foot space, you are on top of each other 24-7,

00:37:50.407 --> 00:37:54.407

Niamh McAnally: and there's time and room for meaningful conversations.

00:37:54.407 --> 00:37:59.607

Niamh McAnally: But when you get into busy life on land you could go a couple of days and you'd

00:37:59.607 --> 00:38:03.427

Niamh McAnally: be like uh-huh uh-huh i'll see you i'll see you later baba and then you might

00:38:03.427 --> 00:38:10.427

Niamh McAnally: not have actually really connected and so we go through that exercise to to keep us on target so.

00:38:10.427 --> 00:38:16.327

Kevin Lowe: We're all like can you just cut to the chase and where does the love story really begin

00:38:19.347 --> 00:38:22.227

Kevin Lowe: everybody's like enough of this dancing around it

00:38:25.107 --> 00:38:31.587

Niamh McAnally: Well it took a year i think i think it was on the anniversary which we call

00:38:31.587 --> 00:38:38.067

Niamh McAnally: the boat of my stepping on the boat for the first time was january 15th of 2017,

00:38:38.767 --> 00:38:41.927

Niamh McAnally: when he eventually got the love word out of his mouth,

00:38:45.947 --> 00:38:49.187

Niamh McAnally: yeah another slow learner yes another slow

00:38:49.187 --> 00:38:52.207

Niamh McAnally: learner i love it yeah it was it

00:38:52.207 --> 00:38:55.327

Niamh McAnally: was quite amazing and there's a thing on boats

00:38:55.327 --> 00:38:58.907

Niamh McAnally: when you're traveling up and down the different islands you have like you know

00:38:58.907 --> 00:39:02.367

Niamh McAnally: a business card where now they have boat cards and it's a picture of you know

00:39:02.367 --> 00:39:06.207

Niamh McAnally: your boat on one side a picture and usually a picture of the people and then

00:39:06.207 --> 00:39:10.067

Niamh McAnally: you know all the details on the back and that's how boaters stay in touch and

00:39:10.067 --> 00:39:13.607

Niamh McAnally: nearly all a lot of the people out there were couples who'd saved up into retirement.

00:39:13.647 --> 00:39:14.727

Niamh McAnally: They're going to do this for a while.

00:39:15.047 --> 00:39:18.447

Niamh McAnally: Well, Gary had his boat card and it was a picture of him on the front and people

00:39:18.447 --> 00:39:19.687

Niamh McAnally: started asking, well, who was Niahmmh?

00:39:20.087 --> 00:39:24.867

Niamh McAnally: And then you would eventually write my name on. And then that day on our first

00:39:24.867 --> 00:39:30.967

Niamh McAnally: boativersary, he hands me a card and it's a picture of the two of us together

00:39:30.967 --> 00:39:32.527

Niamh McAnally: on the front. So that's when I knew.

00:39:33.007 --> 00:39:38.947

Niamh McAnally: And I jumped in the dinghy. We were down actually in a marathon in the Florida Keys at the time.

00:39:39.067 --> 00:39:42.687

Niamh McAnally: I jumped in the dinghy and I drove around all our friends and all the different

00:39:42.687 --> 00:39:46.187

Niamh McAnally: boats in the Angers and I was like, I'm on the cart! I'm on the cart!

00:39:47.867 --> 00:39:50.787

Niamh McAnally: And they were saying, oh, that's as good as a wedding at sea,

00:39:50.907 --> 00:39:54.287

Niamh McAnally: you know? That's some commitment right there.

00:39:54.687 --> 00:39:56.887

Kevin Lowe: Oh my goodness, that is so...

00:39:57.279 --> 00:40:05.259

Kevin Lowe: So special. Wow. So at that point, because so so when you you guys did the you

00:40:05.259 --> 00:40:06.839

Kevin Lowe: spent four months together at the first.

00:40:07.219 --> 00:40:09.599

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. You were separated for not very long.

00:40:10.099 --> 00:40:10.299

Niamh McAnally: No.

00:40:11.079 --> 00:40:16.359

Kevin Lowe: You reconnect. How long before you guys get married?

00:40:16.719 --> 00:40:21.959

Niamh McAnally: So that was 2017 when I got my picture on the front of the boat card.

00:40:22.299 --> 00:40:27.159

Niamh McAnally: And the proposal was Thanksgiving of 2019. So was that almost three years?

00:40:27.279 --> 00:40:28.639

Niamh McAnally: And then we were married.

00:40:28.839 --> 00:40:33.159

Niamh McAnally: We were legally married in Antigua on our boat-aversary. So it was like four

00:40:33.159 --> 00:40:34.919

Niamh McAnally: years from the time I stepped on the boat.

00:40:35.379 --> 00:40:40.159

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Okay. We're going to go back to Antigua after I ask you this question.

00:40:40.439 --> 00:40:43.239

Kevin Lowe: Okay. You guys got married three times.

00:40:43.719 --> 00:40:44.639

Niamh McAnally: That's correct.

00:40:46.339 --> 00:40:49.819

Kevin Lowe: We want to hear about this because most people get married once.

00:40:50.659 --> 00:40:53.119

Niamh McAnally: Right. And, you know, like three times to the same person.

00:40:56.919 --> 00:41:03.479

Niamh McAnally: So we had what we called a toes in the sand wedding in antigua and there was

00:41:03.479 --> 00:41:07.239

Niamh McAnally: two couples who were there as witnesses they were also on boats and they became

00:41:07.239 --> 00:41:11.759

Niamh McAnally: our great friends on the ocean and they have to be in in antigua at the time

00:41:11.759 --> 00:41:16.099

Niamh McAnally: or actually one couple flew in especially for their boat was down in trinidad at the time,

00:41:16.571 --> 00:41:21.071

Niamh McAnally: And so we had that wedding, which was very special, very intimate.

00:41:21.591 --> 00:41:26.691

Niamh McAnally: And we were like signing the legal document out of the back of a van on the side of this dessert.

00:41:28.451 --> 00:41:34.871

Niamh McAnally: So very us. And there's a picture of us afterwards where we are like,

00:41:34.971 --> 00:41:36.891

Niamh McAnally: oh my God, what did we just do?

00:41:37.291 --> 00:41:42.391

Niamh McAnally: And the funniest thing about it is that we had been back in America about,

00:41:42.711 --> 00:41:46.991

Niamh McAnally: oh yeah, before that Thanksgiving moment when he apparently had bought the engagement

00:41:46.991 --> 00:41:49.331

Niamh McAnally: ring and I didn't know anything about it.

00:41:49.471 --> 00:41:51.711

Niamh McAnally: And so when he gave me the engagement ring, I was like, wow.

00:41:52.131 --> 00:41:56.691

Niamh McAnally: And then of course we were still out there in the Caribbean on the ocean when

00:41:56.691 --> 00:41:58.751

Niamh McAnally: it came time for this Antigua wedding.

00:41:59.311 --> 00:42:04.231

Niamh McAnally: And the justice of the peace lady from Antigua who was on the beach with us,

00:42:04.311 --> 00:42:05.531

Niamh McAnally: this is a deserted beach, right?

00:42:06.011 --> 00:42:11.091

Niamh McAnally: And she says, now Gary, blah, blah, blah, it's time to put on the ring.

00:42:11.091 --> 00:42:14.971

Niamh McAnally: So he goes and puts the ring on me and I do the wed and all that good stuff.

00:42:15.111 --> 00:42:17.791

Niamh McAnally: Right. And she turns around to me and she goes, and now Niahm,

00:42:17.911 --> 00:42:19.851

Niamh McAnally: if you're a ring for Gary. And I'm like, huh?

00:42:21.831 --> 00:42:25.151

Niamh McAnally: I don't have a ring for him. I didn't know what to do. Right.

00:42:25.331 --> 00:42:29.651

Niamh McAnally: And so one of the lads who was with us as witness had, he says,

00:42:29.731 --> 00:42:30.891

Niamh McAnally: don't worry, Niahm, I got you covered.

00:42:31.251 --> 00:42:33.971

Niamh McAnally: And he hands me his keys. Right.

00:42:36.711 --> 00:42:41.191

Niamh McAnally: So we take the keys off his key ring chain. And of course, you've got that little

00:42:41.191 --> 00:42:42.731

Niamh McAnally: ring that's left over. Right.

00:42:42.971 --> 00:42:46.771

Niamh McAnally: And so and Gary's looking, knowing full well, I don't have a wedding ring for

00:42:46.771 --> 00:42:49.971

Niamh McAnally: him. He knows I don't. Right. And so I'm going, not a problem.

00:42:50.251 --> 00:42:52.931

Niamh McAnally: And then I just out this. Well, there's a photograph.

00:42:53.311 --> 00:42:57.891

Niamh McAnally: And I tell you what, he's cracking up laugh. And he goes, I got me this most

00:42:57.891 --> 00:43:00.131

Niamh McAnally: beautiful diamond ring with sapphires.

00:43:00.311 --> 00:43:04.131

Niamh McAnally: Like, you know, it looks like us two diamonds in a sapphire sea. And I get a key ring.

00:43:07.771 --> 00:43:11.911

Niamh McAnally: Oh, my God. It was priceless. absolutely priceless but i will in fairness now

00:43:11.911 --> 00:43:20.451

Niamh McAnally: i did get him a ring when we got back to land so that is adorable i know yes.

00:43:20.451 --> 00:43:22.971

Kevin Lowe: So where were the other two weddings

00:43:22.971 --> 00:43:27.771

Niamh McAnally: So the other two weddings one was in ireland in county wicklow we had this manor

00:43:27.771 --> 00:43:32.431

Niamh McAnally: and like i said it was it was put off for 18 months because of covid and everything

00:43:32.431 --> 00:43:36.891

Niamh McAnally: shut down and we weren't able to travel So that was 18 months later and we had

00:43:36.891 --> 00:43:40.611

Niamh McAnally: that wedding and there was a lady down, beautiful,

00:43:40.991 --> 00:43:44.551

Niamh McAnally: I wouldn't call her a tailor, a couture called Noreen.

00:43:45.100 --> 00:43:49.280

Niamh McAnally: And in Antigua, she makes these dresses and like she makes them in the cruise

00:43:49.280 --> 00:43:51.480

Niamh McAnally: ship. People come in, they get a gown.

00:43:51.760 --> 00:43:55.900

Niamh McAnally: She like tailors it and then she delivers to the ship, you know,

00:43:55.960 --> 00:43:57.160

Niamh McAnally: so she's got some gorgeous stuff.

00:43:57.220 --> 00:44:00.980

Niamh McAnally: So anyway, she had made a dress that I was going to wear at my official wedding.

00:44:01.680 --> 00:44:05.440

Niamh McAnally: And it was because of COVID, it was hanging up in the closet on land.

00:44:05.600 --> 00:44:09.800

Niamh McAnally: And it was looking at me every time I thought, are you going to eat that biscuit

00:44:09.800 --> 00:44:15.080

Niamh McAnally: or are you going to wear this dress? You know, it was it was hanging there,

00:44:15.340 --> 00:44:17.780

Niamh McAnally: mocking me for about a year and a half. Like, yeah.

00:44:18.640 --> 00:44:21.860

Niamh McAnally: And then it was finally it was one of Gary's grandchildren said,

00:44:21.920 --> 00:44:25.720

Niamh McAnally: when are we ever going to have this wedding? Because I invited her to be a bridesmaid.

00:44:26.480 --> 00:44:29.880

Niamh McAnally: And we just couldn't make it happen to bring the two families together.

00:44:30.200 --> 00:44:33.120

Niamh McAnally: It would have been put off. And I said, you know what? I'm wearing this dress

00:44:33.120 --> 00:44:35.340

Niamh McAnally: this year or I'm not wearing it at all. That's it. I'm done.

00:44:35.520 --> 00:44:38.460

Niamh McAnally: You know, so that's why we ended up with the two extra weddings,

00:44:38.600 --> 00:44:40.800

Niamh McAnally: one in Ireland and then one in.

00:44:40.980 --> 00:44:43.620

Niamh McAnally: In america for him oh.

00:44:43.620 --> 00:44:47.760

Kevin Lowe: My goodness i love it and you know what i mean it's something as special as

00:44:47.760 --> 00:44:52.020

Kevin Lowe: a wedding why do you have to just have with just one you know right exactly

00:44:52.020 --> 00:44:56.760

Niamh McAnally: Exactly and and now you know there's a there's an expression in ireland where

00:44:56.760 --> 00:45:02.380

Niamh McAnally: we say oh to be sure to be sure well you know it's like now i'm married to be sure to be sure to be sure.

00:45:05.300 --> 00:45:08.660

Kevin Lowe: Oh my goodness i love it so i

00:45:08.660 --> 00:45:13.980

Kevin Lowe: mentioned about wanting to go back to antigua because you're gonna have to correct

00:45:13.980 --> 00:45:21.080

Kevin Lowe: me if this is the start of your writing endeavor or if this was just along the

00:45:21.080 --> 00:45:28.260

Kevin Lowe: way because i know that you met two men in antigua at some point that kicked off writing for you.

00:45:28.880 --> 00:45:33.000

Niamh McAnally: Yeah, I had already started and actually finished my memoir,

00:45:33.180 --> 00:45:34.280

Niamh McAnally: which is called Following Sunshine.

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:41.620

Niamh McAnally: And while we were there, as you said, two men came ashore having rowed a 20-foot

00:45:41.620 --> 00:45:45.360

Niamh McAnally: wooden boat 3,000 nautical miles across the Atlantic.

00:45:45.800 --> 00:45:46.300

Kevin Lowe: Wow.

00:45:47.140 --> 00:45:51.740

Niamh McAnally: Exactly. I was like, what? And to put it in perspective, Gary and I had done

00:45:51.740 --> 00:45:56.540

Niamh McAnally: a 10-day open water passage from the Bahamas down to Puerto Rico in 2018.

00:45:56.900 --> 00:46:01.560

Niamh McAnally: And let me just say it was less than ideal. I remember getting off the boat

00:46:01.560 --> 00:46:06.180

Niamh McAnally: thinking, oh, my God, I've done two open water passages in one, my first and my last.

00:46:06.420 --> 00:46:10.840

Niamh McAnally: And it was really, really rough. And so I was fascinated by these guys.

00:46:10.860 --> 00:46:14.940

Niamh McAnally: And when they cross the finish line in the mouth of the harbor,

00:46:15.560 --> 00:46:22.980

Niamh McAnally: they have this kind of Olympic podium moment where they light their handheld flares and hold them up.

00:46:24.460 --> 00:46:29.520

Niamh McAnally: And it was such a moment and we were out there in our dinghy and I had my uh

00:46:29.520 --> 00:46:33.540

Niamh McAnally: long lens camera with me and I started you know pretending I was a sports photographer

00:46:33.540 --> 00:46:34.500

Niamh McAnally: I was going click click click,

00:46:35.020 --> 00:46:39.640

Niamh McAnally: and at one moment I just turned around to Gary I goosebumps I'm actually getting

00:46:39.640 --> 00:46:44.240

Niamh McAnally: them now talking to you about it I just said oh my god Gary I've got the shot

00:46:44.240 --> 00:46:47.100

Niamh McAnally: now I didn't know what was going to be for I didn't know it was going to be

00:46:47.100 --> 00:46:50.100

Niamh McAnally: anything and I turned around I was actually crying at that point,

00:46:50.200 --> 00:46:51.340

Niamh McAnally: just because it was so incredible.

00:46:51.580 --> 00:46:56.080

Niamh McAnally: And I said to him, I said, this moment is going to live with me for the rest of my life.

00:46:57.760 --> 00:47:03.020

Niamh McAnally: And we dingied back to shore. They came ashore and they literally had to be

00:47:03.020 --> 00:47:06.200

Niamh McAnally: helped off because they were what I call marine lagged.

00:47:06.320 --> 00:47:09.920

Niamh McAnally: You know, their legs weren't wobbly because they'd been on the ocean for so long.

00:47:10.360 --> 00:47:13.540

Niamh McAnally: And we found out that they had no family on island to greet them.

00:47:13.700 --> 00:47:16.520

Niamh McAnally: Now there was locals and there was a couple of people from the race officials

00:47:16.520 --> 00:47:18.520

Niamh McAnally: who were there to greet them.

00:47:19.039 --> 00:47:24.799

Niamh McAnally: And so we went over to them after the whole ceremony was over and we invited

00:47:24.799 --> 00:47:29.039

Niamh McAnally: them on to our sailboat for their first home cooked meal the following night.

00:47:29.219 --> 00:47:31.759

Niamh McAnally: And we showed them the photograph I'd taken.

00:47:32.159 --> 00:47:38.559

Niamh McAnally: And one of the lads, Paul, he was 55 at the time and his partner doing the rowing with him was 65.

00:47:39.119 --> 00:47:44.499

Niamh McAnally: And Paul had started out to do this challenge because he had survived a brain hemorrhage.

00:47:44.599 --> 00:47:47.859

Niamh McAnally: He was a firefighter and he thought, oh, I'm going to do something good with

00:47:47.859 --> 00:47:51.479

Niamh McAnally: my life. And so he decided he was going to do the toughest challenge you could find.

00:47:51.859 --> 00:47:54.999

Niamh McAnally: And that was to roll across the Atlantic. There was only one slight problem.

00:47:55.059 --> 00:47:57.099

Niamh McAnally: He didn't have a rowboat and he'd never learned to row before.

00:47:59.299 --> 00:48:03.319

Niamh McAnally: Why would that stop him? So, so I showed him this photograph and I,

00:48:03.399 --> 00:48:08.499

Niamh McAnally: and he said to me, he said, that doesn't just sum up the 70 days at sea,

00:48:08.559 --> 00:48:12.479

Niamh McAnally: but it also sums up the four year struggle it took to get to the starting line.

00:48:13.139 --> 00:48:16.099

Niamh McAnally: And we started talking about it and they

00:48:16.099 --> 00:48:18.959

Niamh McAnally: found out I was a writer and I was fascinated by

00:48:18.959 --> 00:48:21.579

Niamh McAnally: their story and it was like you couldn't make this up if you

00:48:21.579 --> 00:48:24.659

Niamh McAnally: put this in a novel people wouldn't believe you they'd say oh it's contrived

00:48:24.659 --> 00:48:27.379

Niamh McAnally: so I said to them yeah I'd be interested in

00:48:27.379 --> 00:48:30.899

Niamh McAnally: writing their true story on one condition it

00:48:30.899 --> 00:48:34.539

Niamh McAnally: couldn't be about how to row an ocean but

00:48:34.539 --> 00:48:38.079

Niamh McAnally: if they would dig deep spiritually psychologically and

00:48:38.079 --> 00:48:40.839

Niamh McAnally: emotionally as to why they rode the

00:48:40.839 --> 00:48:44.839

Niamh McAnally: ocean how it affected their families and

00:48:44.839 --> 00:48:49.659

Niamh McAnally: after they had time to reflect how had the experience changed them as human

00:48:49.659 --> 00:48:54.999

Niamh McAnally: beings i said that's the story i'd be very happy to write and that's what it

00:48:54.999 --> 00:48:59.839

Niamh McAnally: is and and it turned out that that photograph became the front cover of flares

00:48:59.839 --> 00:49:03.019

Niamh McAnally: up a story bigger than the atlantic Wow.

00:49:03.479 --> 00:49:09.839

Kevin Lowe: Wow, that is so amazing Again, the puzzle pieces They just fit together

00:49:10.847 --> 00:49:15.687

Niamh McAnally: Absolutely. And I was working with that book for, it took me about a year and

00:49:15.687 --> 00:49:17.727

Niamh McAnally: a half to write because I couldn't write it out of my head.

00:49:17.827 --> 00:49:20.667

Niamh McAnally: It was all Zoom call interviews. This is all during COVID as well.

00:49:20.887 --> 00:49:25.727

Niamh McAnally: Zoom call interviews, emails, phone calls, everything to try and get the story,

00:49:25.927 --> 00:49:29.307

Niamh McAnally: but not just the story, but to get their feelings behind it.

00:49:29.307 --> 00:49:32.727

Niamh McAnally: You know, every time they'd send me a little note saying, oh, this happened this day.

00:49:32.867 --> 00:49:35.687

Niamh McAnally: Yeah, well, how did you feel about that? And what did you think about that?

00:49:35.807 --> 00:49:39.167

Niamh McAnally: What happened when you called your family? All those kind of things, you know.

00:49:39.347 --> 00:49:44.827

Niamh McAnally: And I interviewed all of his, their wives, their people that they worked with,

00:49:45.347 --> 00:49:47.107

Niamh McAnally: children, so many people.

00:49:47.207 --> 00:49:50.547

Niamh McAnally: And even the guy who built the boat originally to try and get it authentic.

00:49:50.547 --> 00:49:53.407

Niamh McAnally: And I wrote it to read like a novel.

00:49:54.247 --> 00:49:58.867

Niamh McAnally: And the beauty of it is, and this is a God-given talent I got.

00:49:58.867 --> 00:50:06.127

Niamh McAnally: Yes, I learned my craft of writing, but I have this innate ability to put people in the situation.

00:50:06.307 --> 00:50:09.827

Niamh McAnally: And the amount of people have come back to me and said, I felt I was in that

00:50:09.827 --> 00:50:14.367

Niamh McAnally: boat with them the whole way over, you know. And I mean, it's not all just in the boat.

00:50:14.607 --> 00:50:18.947

Niamh McAnally: Obviously, the whole run up to it. I think the first third of the book is actually

00:50:18.947 --> 00:50:21.107

Niamh McAnally: them preparing and, you know, their family dynamic.

00:50:21.407 --> 00:50:24.447

Niamh McAnally: And so it's not all in the boat. And then, of course, you see what happens to

00:50:24.447 --> 00:50:25.287

Niamh McAnally: them afterwards. words.

00:50:25.907 --> 00:50:30.647

Niamh McAnally: So after I'd finished all that and we had it out, it was published by a UK publisher.

00:50:30.847 --> 00:50:33.067

Niamh McAnally: And then we were doing some marketing on that.

00:50:33.367 --> 00:50:37.667

Niamh McAnally: Then I went back to my memoir, Following Sunshine, and I brought it up to date

00:50:37.667 --> 00:50:40.667

Niamh McAnally: in the epilogue to the moment that I took that photograph.

00:50:41.347 --> 00:50:46.707

Niamh McAnally: And so it just came out. And the subtitle of Following Sunshine is A Voyage

00:50:46.707 --> 00:50:49.847

Niamh McAnally: Around the Mind, Around the World, Around the Heart.

00:50:50.447 --> 00:50:53.127

Niamh McAnally: And it's my story. And that first part around the

00:50:53.127 --> 00:50:56.887

Niamh McAnally: mind is like what we've been talking about growing up in ireland how it was

00:50:56.887 --> 00:51:00.787

Niamh McAnally: impactful you know growing up in the family i grew up in and then the second

00:51:00.787 --> 00:51:04.347

Niamh McAnally: part is around the world which is that year i spent volunteering in all these

00:51:04.347 --> 00:51:09.387

Niamh McAnally: different places and the third one around the heart is from the moment i stepped

00:51:09.387 --> 00:51:12.067

Niamh McAnally: on the sailboat and met gary krieger oh.

00:51:12.067 --> 00:51:15.707

Kevin Lowe: My goodness yeah that sounds amazing

00:51:15.707 --> 00:51:19.627

Niamh McAnally: Yeah it's a good it's a good old read let me tell you and.

00:51:19.627 --> 00:51:24.907

Kevin Lowe: And for somebody dying to read it where can people go to to purchase this book

00:51:24.907 --> 00:51:32.067

Niamh McAnally: So in america yeah obviously it's on amazon and it's in local bookstores and

00:51:32.067 --> 00:51:36.567

Niamh McAnally: the best place to follow me or to find me and find all my different things that

00:51:36.567 --> 00:51:41.787

Niamh McAnally: are coming out in new books etc is on my website which coincidentally is called

00:51:41.787 --> 00:51:44.427

Niamh McAnally: the writer on the water.com.

00:51:45.425 --> 00:51:46.065

Kevin Lowe: Original.

00:51:46.665 --> 00:51:47.285

Niamh McAnally: Yeah, very original.

00:51:49.305 --> 00:51:54.085

Niamh McAnally: Let's just put it this way. It's a whole lot easier to spell when I'm doing a radio interview.

00:51:54.265 --> 00:51:57.045

Niamh McAnally: People are like, what? Rather than my name, right? Which, as you know,

00:51:57.085 --> 00:52:00.165

Niamh McAnally: is a Gaelic name. So there's a lot of letters and consonants in there.

00:52:00.325 --> 00:52:03.585

Niamh McAnally: So my whole brand is called TheWriterOnTheWater.com.

00:52:04.105 --> 00:52:11.045

Kevin Lowe: The Writer on the Water. What a beautiful name for a beautiful story with a

00:52:11.045 --> 00:52:16.585

Kevin Lowe: beautiful woman. And honest to goodness, you yourself are amazing.

00:52:17.005 --> 00:52:20.545

Kevin Lowe: Your story is just so joy-filled.

00:52:20.785 --> 00:52:26.165

Kevin Lowe: I think that's honestly the thing that I love the most about you and your story

00:52:26.165 --> 00:52:31.005

Kevin Lowe: is a perspective on life that I wish more of us had.

00:52:31.205 --> 00:52:34.745

Kevin Lowe: Of looking at life for the beauty, for the joy.

00:52:35.125 --> 00:52:39.745

Kevin Lowe: And finding those little moments in amongst it all to just appreciate it.

00:52:39.745 --> 00:52:46.685

Kevin Lowe: And listening to you and telling the story that's turned into this just amazing love story.

00:52:47.005 --> 00:52:51.685

Kevin Lowe: I think it gives all of us a little bit of hope, no matter where we are in life,

00:52:52.185 --> 00:52:57.805

Kevin Lowe: that sometimes you just got to keep going because you never know what the decisions

00:52:57.805 --> 00:53:00.125

Kevin Lowe: you make today, how they're going to impact tomorrow.

00:53:00.885 --> 00:53:04.565

Niamh McAnally: Absolutely. And I mean, speaking of joy, there's no one better than you than

00:53:04.565 --> 00:53:10.345

Niamh McAnally: looking at life through joyful eyes and, you know, and encouraging everybody else with your podcast.

00:53:10.745 --> 00:53:14.845

Niamh McAnally: And I think the one thing that I would share from my experience is,

00:53:14.965 --> 00:53:17.145

Niamh McAnally: number one, it's never too late.

00:53:17.945 --> 00:53:21.045

Niamh McAnally: And number two, never put off a dream.

00:53:22.125 --> 00:53:25.505

Kevin Lowe: I agree. I love it. Before we end,

00:53:25.665 --> 00:53:26.585

Niamh McAnally: Is there anything.

00:53:26.585 --> 00:53:28.445

Kevin Lowe: Else that you want to be sure

00:53:28.445 --> 00:53:29.605

Niamh McAnally: That this person.

00:53:29.605 --> 00:53:34.325

Kevin Lowe: Listening today knows about you about your story about what you do or what you have coming up

00:53:34.325 --> 00:53:37.385

Niamh McAnally: Yeah let me just very briefly tell you about my

00:53:37.385 --> 00:53:44.585

Niamh McAnally: time in Bora Bora in French Polynesia oh yes I kept putting that off and the

00:53:44.585 --> 00:53:48.745

Niamh McAnally: reason I put it off was number one it's a very expensive destination it swallows

00:53:48.745 --> 00:53:55.285

Niamh McAnally: your firstborn your wallet your house everything right and number two it is

00:53:55.285 --> 00:53:57.025

Niamh McAnally: the honeymoon capital of the world.

00:53:57.285 --> 00:54:00.745

Niamh McAnally: So I was single at that time trying to find my place when I was going around

00:54:00.745 --> 00:54:03.445

Niamh McAnally: was before I met Gary and I kept putting it off.

00:54:03.625 --> 00:54:08.945

Niamh McAnally: And then finally I found a way and I ended up staying eight nights on Bora Bora,

00:54:09.045 --> 00:54:12.125

Niamh McAnally: the main island for the price of one night on one of the resorts.

00:54:12.805 --> 00:54:18.525

Niamh McAnally: And I found a little pension and I ate from food trucks and I got to experience

00:54:18.525 --> 00:54:24.605

Niamh McAnally: the incredible, beautiful blue Azure Lagoon and the whole experience.

00:54:25.045 --> 00:54:29.245

Niamh McAnally: And that taught me the lesson, never, ever, ever put off a dream.

00:54:30.625 --> 00:54:38.885

Niamh McAnally: And also, we don't know how we as one human being can impact another person.

00:54:40.078 --> 00:54:45.538

Niamh McAnally: And a story that came up during the it's actually in the writing of a little

00:54:45.538 --> 00:54:47.938

Niamh McAnally: bit of a spoiler alert. It's in the writing of Following Sunshine.

00:54:48.538 --> 00:54:52.238

Niamh McAnally: Years and years ago, when I was in one of those despondent places is after,

00:54:52.238 --> 00:54:56.198

Niamh McAnally: you know, I was out of a relationship and I didn't know what direction to go in.

00:54:56.378 --> 00:54:59.238

Niamh McAnally: I ended up sponsoring a kid from Bolivia.

00:54:59.438 --> 00:55:01.858

Niamh McAnally: You know, back in the day, you were able, oh, here's a charity.

00:55:02.118 --> 00:55:05.218

Niamh McAnally: And, you know, you write to the kid every week and you sponsor them to help

00:55:05.218 --> 00:55:08.498

Niamh McAnally: them either get more programs at school or something like that.

00:55:09.478 --> 00:55:15.338

Niamh McAnally: And I did that and I did it for two reasons one I made it my number one job no matter what I,

00:55:15.878 --> 00:55:18.698

Niamh McAnally: position I was in financial I was going to do that every month and number two

00:55:18.698 --> 00:55:25.378

Niamh McAnally: I wasn't going to tell anybody and back to my whole psyche of freelance variety

00:55:25.378 --> 00:55:29.618

Niamh McAnally: start again it was the longest commitment of my life that I had ever done at

00:55:29.618 --> 00:55:33.458

Niamh McAnally: that point which was 10 years to do this every month and write back and forth.

00:55:34.058 --> 00:55:39.478

Niamh McAnally: And when the kid turned 18, the charity said, okay, you're done and dusted.

00:55:39.598 --> 00:55:42.838

Niamh McAnally: Here's another kid you could start with. And I went, no, I'd like to keep writing to him.

00:55:42.978 --> 00:55:45.158

Niamh McAnally: Thank you very much. And said, no, we can't give you his details.

00:55:46.118 --> 00:55:51.318

Niamh McAnally: So years and years and years and years passed by and I was never able to find him.

00:55:51.458 --> 00:55:57.498

Niamh McAnally: And then one day I'm on the boat with Gary and this friend request comes up

00:55:57.498 --> 00:55:58.958

Niamh McAnally: on Facebook and I'm like,

00:55:59.078 --> 00:56:01.978

Niamh McAnally: the name is kind of familiar but i don't have no mutual friends

00:56:01.978 --> 00:56:05.178

Niamh McAnally: who's this and it turned out to be the boy

00:56:05.178 --> 00:56:08.438

Niamh McAnally: ivan who's now a man and guess

00:56:08.438 --> 00:56:14.458

Niamh McAnally: what he became he from bolivia went on through that whole schooling and he became

00:56:14.458 --> 00:56:22.978

Niamh McAnally: a doctor and he studied for nine years in cuba and then went back to bolivia

00:56:22.978 --> 00:56:26.338

Niamh McAnally: to his local town and became the doctor in the local town.

00:56:26.538 --> 00:56:31.078

Niamh McAnally: And I was like, oh my God, you know, we've no idea how we can impact another

00:56:31.078 --> 00:56:34.518

Niamh McAnally: human being. And now talk about the butterfly effect.

00:56:34.958 --> 00:56:38.278

Niamh McAnally: Look how he's impacting other people by taking care of them,

00:56:38.458 --> 00:56:40.398

Niamh McAnally: you know, in remote areas.

00:56:40.678 --> 00:56:46.898

Kevin Lowe: It's incredible. You know what it goes back to is love, is caring for one another,

00:56:47.398 --> 00:56:51.138

Kevin Lowe: for taking the time to be there for one another.

00:56:52.278 --> 00:56:55.898

Kevin Lowe: And you have to look at that and you have to know in your heart

00:56:57.020 --> 00:57:01.980

Kevin Lowe: You had to play a massive role in where that where that man is today.

00:57:02.480 --> 00:57:05.860

Niamh McAnally: Yeah. And Gary said to me, he said something like that to me.

00:57:05.920 --> 00:57:09.240

Niamh McAnally: And I said, no, I just wrote to him and, you know, exchange letters and all that kind of good stuff.

00:57:09.940 --> 00:57:13.660

Niamh McAnally: Well, here's a massive spoiler alert. I'm only telling you I haven't told anybody

00:57:13.660 --> 00:57:16.180

Niamh McAnally: else in any any conversations or interviews I did.

00:57:16.320 --> 00:57:21.040

Niamh McAnally: I said to him someday I want to meet him and I can't go to Bolivia because where

00:57:21.040 --> 00:57:24.800

Niamh McAnally: he lives is like way up in the mountains. and I suffer from altitude sickness.

00:57:25.360 --> 00:57:28.300

Niamh McAnally: Well, for my birthday this year, I have four rules.

00:57:28.460 --> 00:57:32.640

Niamh McAnally: One is I always celebrate on the day, not the Saturday before or after because

00:57:32.640 --> 00:57:35.320

Niamh McAnally: somebody else wants to not have a hangover going after a party.

00:57:37.460 --> 00:57:42.700

Niamh McAnally: And number three, I celebrate Mother's Day on that, Mother's and Father's Day

00:57:42.700 --> 00:57:45.960

Niamh McAnally: on that day, not the day that the card company tells me to do it because that's

00:57:45.960 --> 00:57:47.060

Niamh McAnally: the day they became my parents.

00:57:47.340 --> 00:57:51.280

Niamh McAnally: And number four, I have to do something I have never done before in my whole life.

00:57:51.280 --> 00:57:54.080

Niamh McAnally: And this year it was like i'm running out

00:57:54.080 --> 00:57:57.100

Niamh McAnally: of things because i've done quite a little bit of things right and i

00:57:57.100 --> 00:58:00.000

Niamh McAnally: went i want to go meet him and it

00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:05.300

Niamh McAnally: turned out he's back doing his special his specialty in hematology in cuba and

00:58:05.300 --> 00:58:12.160

Niamh McAnally: we went down and we met him in person for the first time ever oh my gosh i know

00:58:12.160 --> 00:58:18.920

Niamh McAnally: i can't i can't tell you how amazing that experience was yes wow Well.

00:58:19.380 --> 00:58:25.180

Kevin Lowe: Niahm, if you have made my day, I can only imagine for whoever is listening,

00:58:25.380 --> 00:58:27.880

Kevin Lowe: wherever in the world they are, that you've made their day.

00:58:28.260 --> 00:58:33.680

Kevin Lowe: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here today to get to share just

00:58:33.680 --> 00:58:38.900

Kevin Lowe: this little piece of your story with me, with my listeners. It means the world.

00:58:39.780 --> 00:58:43.980

Niamh McAnally: Well, thank you so much. I love talking with you. You are such an inspiration yourself.

00:58:44.440 --> 00:58:51.740

Kevin Lowe: Oh, well, thank you so much. And for you listening, wow, what an interview that was.

00:58:51.900 --> 00:58:57.140

Kevin Lowe: A conversation with a woman who is just a ray of sunlight.

00:58:57.320 --> 00:59:04.080

Kevin Lowe: An amazing soul who, I feel like we're all just been blessed by her presence today.

00:59:04.400 --> 00:59:08.300

Kevin Lowe: So my friend, if there's somebody you're thinking of that you know would love

00:59:08.300 --> 00:59:11.080

Kevin Lowe: to hear this, be sure to share today's episode with them.

00:59:11.080 --> 00:59:16.740

Kevin Lowe: And if anything else, just take something you heard today, put it into action

00:59:16.740 --> 00:59:21.920

Kevin Lowe: in your life, always in the hope of making today a little bit better than yesterday

00:59:21.920 --> 00:59:24.200

Kevin Lowe: and tomorrow even better than next.

00:59:24.080 --> 00:59:43.707