Mother. Chef. Birth doula. Market trader. Community campaigner. Sea swimmer. Greystones local. Traveller. And, in her own words, not simply someone who has survived a difficult health experience, but someone who has learnt how to thrive through it.
In this episode of Voices of Greystones, Deb Davis sits down with Terry at High Tide Studios for a remarkably open conversation about following your instincts, taking chances and finding the courage to say “hell yes” to life.
Deb's connection with Greystones goes back 60 years. She remembers childhood summers at her grandparents' home in Gorse Hill, trips to the South Beach, her grandmother bringing people together through food, and her grandfather coaching children at the local tennis club. She also reflects on how much the town has changed — and what she believes has remained.
At 19, Deb followed another “hell yes” and moved to California. That led to a life of travel, cooking and adventure, eventually taking her to Paris, Brussels and some extraordinary experiences working with food and pastry.
She talks about why cooking became much more than a career, and how feeding people became a way of connecting with them.
Later, motherhood led Deb towards birth work. She shares the experience that inspired her to become a doula and her passion for giving women and couples more information and possibilities around birth.
The conversation then moves into one of the most personal chapters of her life: being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016.
Deb speaks honestly about the fear that came with that diagnosis, the decisions she made about her treatment, and how the experience changed the way she approached health, anxiety and everyday life. She describes it as a “divine tap on the shoulder” and talks about the tools she developed to manage fear and stress.
There is also plenty of humour.
From chocolate and Parisian patisseries to sea swimming, nipple tassels and her wonderfully named “Real Happy Pair”, Deb has a way of finding lightness in some of life's heavier moments.
And at the heart of the conversation is one word: flourish.
What does it actually mean to live well? What gets in the way of it? Can a community help people flourish? And what does Greystones have that makes Deb feel she belongs?
Her answer comes back to people, nature, the sea and connection — and to the simple idea that everyone has something to bring to the world.
This is a conversation about following your instincts, embracing change, finding your people and making the most of the life in front of you.
Every stone has a story. What's yours?
I've based these on the actual transcript rather than the Gemini chapter list.
00:00 – Welcome to Voices of Greystones
00:26 – Meet Deb Davis: A Woman of Many Hats
03:53 – Growing Up in Greystones
05:21 – Childhood, Grandparents & the South Beach
07:43 – Tennis, Food & Bringing People Together
10:09 – How Greystones Has Changed
11:28 – What Greystones Still Has
13:08 – The “Hell Yes” That Took Deb to California
15:48 – Discovering a Love of Cooking
17:57 – Paris, Brussels & a River of Chocolate
21:45 – Food, Family & Connection
22:02 – Becoming a Birth Doula
24:00 – Home Birth & Following Her Instincts
26:11 – Sharing the Possibility of a Different Birth Experience
27:33 – What Does It Mean to Flourish?
29:12 – A Breast Cancer Diagnosis
30:35 – Trusting Her Inner Voice
32:35 – The “Divine Tap on the Shoulder”
34:15 – Anxiety, Fear & Finding the Tools to Cope
34:58 – Discovering Sea Swimming
36:21 – “Do You Want to Live or Do You Want to Die?”
38:52 – The Real Happy Pair
40:38 – Humour, Healing & Reclaiming Yourself
42:16 – What Does It Mean to Flourish?
45:24 – Modern Life, Phones & Finding Stillness
48:08 – Can Greystones Help People Flourish?
49:30 – Sea Swimming, Dog Walking & Connection
50:46 – What Deb Hopes Her Sons Learn
52:30 – What Greystones Means to Deb Now
53:44 – Thank You for Listening
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