“The reason we are here is due to the phenomenal support of the community”
Paula Tahraoui firmly believes that a person never knows how much inner strength they have until they are tested. The popular proprietor of Siroccos restaurant in Tullamore knows what she is talking about, as she has been tested more than most.
Paula was mother to three small children, aged six, seven and eight, and was pregnant with her fourth child when her whole world came crashing down three days before Christmas in the year 2000 with the death of her beloved husband, Rico. Rico Tahraoui was just 34 year old when he was killed by a drunk driver in a horror road crash on his way back to Tullamore after dropping one of his employees home from the restaurant he had established in the town 18 months previously. Opening his own restaurant - which was originally called Senor Rico – was the culmination of a lifelong dream for Rico and his young family.
That the restaurant did re-open and continues to thrive to this very day is a testament to the inner strength of Paula Tahraoui. As they marked a milestone quarter of a century in business with a celebration night for their loyal customers and staff last week, Paula frankly admits that the days, weeks and indeed months after the sudden death of her husband “were all just a blur...I don't know how I got through it.”
With three children who were now totally dependent on her, and another baby on the way, Paula Tahraoui, who is a native of Goresbridge in county Kilkenny, said she had “mouths to feed and bills to pay” so she somehow found the inner resolve to “keep going.” She admits that turning her back and walking away from what was her late husband's “dream, his legacy and his memory” would have been “a very difficult thing to do” but adds that “everything was difficult” and her choices were “stark” in the wake of Rico's death. “The very essence of Rico was, and still is, in the restaurant, so I couldn't walk away from that.”
Despite the fact that the Tahraoui family had “no connections” to Tullamore when they first arrived here in June 1999 from Castletownbere in Cork to open their own restaurant, and had no family living close by, Paula says they received “huge support” from day one, and at last week's 25th anniversary celebrations she publicly thanked the local community for their “phenomenal support” over the past quarter of a century.
“The reason we are here 25 years later is due to the phenomenal support we received from the local community,” she said, “we were just blow-ins and the care and love and support we received after Rico passed really changed everything for me and made us feel part of this community. Yes, I was on my own, but I never felt that, and I want to thank everyone who helped us from the bottom of my heart.”
Over the course of the past 25 years, Paula Tahraoui says she has witnessed “generations of families” pass through the doors of their Patrick Street premises, and is now seeing “children who came in with their own parents as babies returning to the restaurant with their own babies.” She says it is “very rewarding” for her and her staff to see people returning again and again and choosing to celebrate milestone events like birthdays, First Communions, Confirmations, graduations and many more events in the restaurant. “Many of the children who would have come in here with their parents have also returned to work with us while they were in secondary school and college, so in a lot of ways we are like one big family,” she says.
Paula and the late Rico's four children, Adam, Sami, Sonia and Rachel (who was born four months after the death of her father) have all contributed to the success of the restaurant by working there at various times over the years, and supporting their mother, who paid tribute to them at last week's anniversary celebrations.
Reflecting on the trauma that her children have had to grow up with, Paula Tahraoui says it has “deeply impacted their lives in many different ways” but she said they are “incredible” for the manner in which they have been able to process it and get on with their lives.
As someone who admits to having “a very deep faith” Paula Tahraoui says her faith has carried her through the “many dark moments and the really difficult days” she has experienced since the loss of her husband. “Of course there was the anger faith of grief, but there does come an acceptance and I really do believe that nothing is sent to us unless we are able to carry it.”
All these years later, Paula Tahraoui still feels her late husband is “just a breath away” and she has been able to feel his presence at “key moments” in her life when she really needed him to be with her. “When you have to be both a mother and a father to your children it can be a lonely place but I have felt Rico's presence throughout my life” she says.
A key moment in the lives of the Tahraoui family was the birth of Paula's grandchild, Mia, who poignantly arrived into the world, to Paula's daughter, Sonia, on December 22, 2013, 13 years to the day after Rico Tahraoui passed away.
Paula describes her granddaughter, who will be 11 years old this year, as “a gift from God and a message from Rico”, and says she has “brought the joy back into Christmas” for the entire family. “With Rico passing away just before Christmas it was always a really difficult time for us, but Mia's birth was such a joy, and she is such a joy.”