Loosley Row in Lockdown

Hallmark June 2020. Loosley Row in Lockdown by Louisa Spearing

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another” Charles Dickens.

I think that this has been shown in. so many ways, with a plethora of big and small kindnesses, in this new world order where we find ourselves. The NHS, community and home are defining 2020, we have been forced to halt our frenetic lives and take stock; resulting, in the main, in a cleaner and a more gentle world.

I was approached by Diana Reder in early March, she thought that since the government was about to ask all over 70s to self isolate, because of the Covid19 pandemic, we needed to come up with a suitable Loosley Row style response. There ensued a flurry of whatsapps and a hastily scheduled meeting in my kitchen, for the next morning. The response was heart-warming and overwhelming: by the end of that Monday we had a flier designed, street reps and volunteers designated and a master plan of how to help those vulnerable, self isolating, sick and elderly within our community.

We have a few key aims, we want to provide human contact - albeit at an acceptable distance - for those who are on their own, help with picking up shopping, prescriptions and other urgent supplies, or simply posting a letter. Our village has done this and so much more.  We have worked in conjunction with Lacey Green and Eileen Rowlands to pool resources, share ideas and build community links.

Helpful initiatives have popped up all over the place, whether it is how to recognise key birthdays in lockdown, offering ready made meals to those who need such support, to sharing eggs or excess fruit, and vegetables left out for you to help yourself as you pass on your daily exercise. Some of us have even turned into testers for a local scented candle business.

One of the most successful of all of these initiatives has been Kate Collet-Fenson’s ‘For the Love of Scrubs’ sewing and knitting group providing headbands, scrubs, woolly baby hats and so much more to our local, and not so local, care homes and hospitals. I know Kate is writing her own account of this adventure but I wanted to acknowledge here what an amazing and generous contribution she and her family have made to our society in these strange times.

Thanks to the hard work of Graham Roberts and Kay Pallister we have also been included in the Risborough Baskets scheme. Our residents can place orders from the shops in Princes Risborough on a Tuesday and Friday, to be delivered by Rafe and myself to your houses in Loosley Row. Kay and Graham are in charge of the Lacey Green deliveries. Rafe and | have been kept very busy, as the idea has been impressively embraced by our village!