“The hardest thing about Lockdown for me was not seeing my Mum. I visit Mum two or three times a week. She lives a few blocks away. It takes me half an hour to walk there. My brother was looking after Mum but I still worried about her because I couldn’t see her. I rang…
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“Lockdown was revitalising in a lot of ways. We slept in and we did a lot of exercise because the weather was good. We listened to Jacinda, we stayed home; we saved lives. We saw a few neighbours and met up for a drink over the fence but everyone pretty much did their own thing.…
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Corey relished his time in Lockdown spending more time on the land, helping out wherever he could and getting involved in a whole range of activities with those in his bubble. He hosted movie nights in his room where everyone relaxed around his TV, made huge pancake stacks for Sunday morning breakfast and turned his…
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“We were as set up for Lockdown as best we could be. It was a pretty hectic time. We had about a week to get ourselves ready so that involved me having conversations with each of the staff. One staff member was quite afraid to come in because she was over 55. It was quite…
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“I like walking a lot. I walk in Totara Park and I go down to the local shops and I like talking to people when I’m out. Everyone knows me around here! The staff would call me on my smart watch to check I was okay and to remind me to come home. I usually…
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“How long have we been together? I don’t know. I lose track, I think three years. I fell in love with him and he’s nice to me. He’s my partner. I like that he’s got tattoos. We first met on an online dating site. I said to him ‘would he like to come to Gisborne?’…
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Timothy, Andrew and Corey live at their Hearth Trust home set in Lower Hutt’s western hills where they are supported by staff and volunteers. This has been their home for the last few years. In 2015 Tim’s family founded the Trust and bought the home where he lives with two others and support workers. The…
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“In January I started building my own house in Kihikihi with my brother. About a month before Lockdown I changed my situation and got in a disability provider to look after my Enabling Good Lives (EGL) budget. Life before EGL was terrible, so frustrating. The amount of funding was not very good, and I had…
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“I enjoyed myself in Covid-19 going for a walk. My doctor told me to walk. It’s good. I do more walking now. My staff have noticed that I have lost weight. I want to set a goal. I can still do it. I have walked up Kaiti Hill 25 times. I’m a bit slower up…
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“It was a last-minute thing to come to Ruatāhuna… we’re blessed to have two homes and work that spreads us between two regions. Once given the warning that we would be moving to Level 4 we had to make a quick decision as to where our whānau would be best placed. Stay in the suburbs,…
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