An award-winning poet and “devoted” pet sitter from Congleton who writes rhymes and performs “random acts of kindness” by handing out her verses to the people who inspire them has had her first collection of poetry published.
Julie O’Reilly, (61), who trained to be a radiographer in Shrewsbury in 1981 and who was born and raised in North Wales, creates daily lines between juggling being a carer for her 87-year-old mum, Eluned Taylor, and taking care of people’s cats.
She said her initial anthology, “Goldfish in a Pond” published by All Poetry, the “web’s largest poetry writing group”, was influenced by her family, life experiences and local people including “superwoman Jane”, who runs the post office at Hightown, Congleton, the dentists at Synergy dental in Biddulph, and security guard Raja, who is employed at Sainsbury in Biddulph.
“Raja, Guardian of the Aisles,” which she jotted down this year, is one of the opening poems in her book and Mrs O’Reilly said the supermarket worker, originally from Pakistan and now living in Cobridge, was “shocked” when she presented him with her kind gesture.
An excerpt from the poem reads: “Raja, defender of checkout lanes / Counts coins and coupons / Weaves life’s refrains / Behind the scenes, when tills are silent / He dreams of home – a cradle for the defiant / Oh Raja, keeper of grocery lists / Your presence a beacon in the mist.”
Speaking about what attracted her to pen an ode to the shop worker she explained: “I got this feeling that he was trying hard, he was very nice to everybody and it was obvious that he had come here from another country because his English isn’t that good.
“I thought it would be good to talk to him and get to know him a bit better. I saw that he interacted with people, whereas some security officers are just on their phone all the time, so I wrote a poem for him.”
She continued: “When I gave it to him, he was so surprised, because he said it had taken him nine months to come to the UK and he told me he travels to work every day on the bus.” She recalled that the retail worker said to her: “Nobody’s ever done anything like that for me!” to which she answered him: “Well, I’ve noticed you.”
“A lot of people don’t ever get noticed, that’s why I gave him the poem,” said Mrs O’Reilly, who has been married to husband Martin, (68), since 1984.
Mr O’Reilly, originally from Sale in Manchester, previously had his own business writing computer software for the police force.
Mrs O’ Reilly, who has two children, Gillian, (36), and Alex, (32), popped her composition in the mail to Sainsbury, who sent it to the security company Raja worked for, who dropped the poet a line to let her know they had thanked him.
“They said that Raja must be doing something right for someone to have noticed him!” she said.
The closing line in the poem reads: “Raja, guardian of aisles, may your path be bright / As you watch over Sainsbury’s day and night.”
Marketing
The writer, who particularly loves rhyming poems because they are “fun” also regularly surprises dental staff at Synergy in Biddulph with a line or two at each visit and the company loved them so much that they have used her works in their marketing on social media.
“Jane,” (Bostock-Gibson) who owns Hightown post office has also been gifted with one.
Mrs O’Reilly said: “There are people going about their jobs every day and nobody notices them but they put a lot of themselves into the job.
“If you’ve ever met Jane, she goes above and beyond for every customer who comes in. She likes to know your name and she likes a bit of gossip, but she will tell you things that are useful.
“She’s helpful, she will be serving you while listening to the person next in the queue and asking them what they want. She’s like, super woman!”
A handful of Mrs O’ Reilly’s poems have also been published in The “Chronicle”.
When asked what the significance of the book’s title, “Goldfish in a Pond”, Mrs O’Reilly explained: “We have a pond in the garden. I think just like people who don’t get noticed, neither do these poor little goldfishes swimming around in the pool.”
She continued: “But they are very beautiful, I just think goldfish are lovely but underappreciated, so they also get a mention in my book.”
A handful of the “varied” themes which run through the compendium are death, following the sad loss of her dad and brother in 2007, religion, animals – including a mouse who dug a little hole under her garden fence – the Olympics, and the US election.
Prompted to begin fashioning verses when she was seven years old by her mum’s love of telling stories and spurred on by wanting to see her name in the local paper, Mrs O’Reilly sent a poem to the “Bangor Chronicle”, which published her words, and “that was the start!” she said as she recalled cutting out the clipping of the poem.
She said the fluffy felines she has attended to since 2016 when she moved from Biddulph to Congleton have also inspired her poetry and in this case it’s the pet owners who are given a present in the form of prose.
“I like to leave people a gift when I’ve finished cat sitting, it can be anything, a pen or a pad or flowers, just something to say I’ve been. “So, I came up with the idea to write a poem about their cat, my poems are personalised you see.
“I go away and think about what their cat does do, and then they receive a poem when they come back,” she said.
Mrs O’Reilly, who once worked as a teaching assistant at Woodhouse Middle School in Biddulph, said the pet parents were so delighted that a handful of them framed her poems and hung them on the wall.
“People think of their cats as children and are very attached to their animal,” she said.
The passionate storyteller, who enters daily writing competitions on the All-Poetry website, has also crafted poems to celebrate the lives of cats she looked after that have passed away.
“Those seem to go down well too,” she said.
Life
How did she get into pet sitting? “When I moved to Congleton, my mum came to live with us, and I knew I still had a bit of life left in me and I needed to do something, and I came up with the idea of pet sitting.
“I began looking after dogs and cats, but I found the dogs were too much for me. Some of them pulled on the lead and I ended up with a bad shoulder, so I gave them up and I just do cats now.
“I feel like I understand cats better. I don’t really understand dogs,” she said.
The book’s preface reads that she shares her love of poetry with her furry friends, and when asked how she does this Mrs O’Reilly said: “I read it to them. When I’m with them, I’ll be making stuff up and I’ll talk to them and they respond affectionately by rubbing their head on my leg or jumping on my knee, they seem to like it.”
At the end of the interview Mrs O’Reilly, whose aim is to publish a second book at the end of next year and who “channels her passion for poetry into spreading joy to everyone she meets,” said to our “Chronicle” reporter: “I think I’m going to write a poem about you.”
It appeared in our inbox a short time later and made her day.
• “Goldfish in a Pond” by Julie O’Reilly can be purchased on Amazon, amazon.co.uk (E: 9798341352902).
Kelly the intrepid reporter
In Congleton’s bustling streets, she roams,
A reporter with a heart that feels like home.
Kelly, with her pen so keen,
Writes stories vivid, like a dream.
Her words, like loyal hounds, do chase,
The truth, with an unwavering pace.
In fields of ink, they bound and play,
Bringing news to light each day.
Her love for dogs, a gentle guide,
In every tale, they stride beside.
With paws of prose, they dig and find,
The hidden gems, the stories kind.
In the “Chronicle’s” pages, she weaves,
A tapestry of lives and leaves.
With a bark of truth, a wag of rhyme,
She captures moments, frozen in time.
So here’s to Kelly, with her pen and paws,
A reporter who earns our heartfelt applause.
In Congleton’s heart, she stands so tall,
A lover of dogs, and writing, above all.
(Photos: Julie O’Reilly).
