Love is in the airwaves, apparently.
A couple of Irish sweethearts looked back fondly on their time together live on Irish radio on Tuesday afternoon, when Kevin Barron and Geraldine Dunleavy, Kevin’s first girlfriend, phoned into RTÉ Radio 1 to reminisce on the days of yore.
Solicitor Kevin Barron was on the show to talk about his experience with MS, which he was diagnosed with in his 20s.
When he was 46, his elderly parents were no longer able to care for him, leaving Kevin little choice but to enter nursing home care. He told Liveline that he believed this was a temporary solution.
He has now been in the nursing home for 13-and-a-half years. All he wants is to go home.
Barron went on to describe how boring the days are – opting to stay in bed for long periods of time because he doesn’t like being in the sitting room in the nursing home.
He says many of the residents have Alzheimer’s and dementia and he doesn’t have anything in common with them. His MS means he can also no longer read.
Kevin’s interview prompted a huge response from listeners, not least from his first love Geraldine.
In a dramatic turn of events, Dunleavy called into the programme when she heard Kevin on the air.
The two were subsequently reunited, sharing stories of their first date to the cinema to see Sidney Poitier in A Warm December.
“He was the first boy to ask me out and I was delighted,” Dunleavy commented, noting that he was her first significant other. Barron said the same about Geraldine.
Both parties vividly remembered going to the cinema together – during which 59-year-old Kevin put his arm around Geraldine, an action which nearly saw her faint, according to Dunleavy.
The full conversation can be listened to here with Barron’s original call-in to show available here.
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