Colin Parkinson (A personal reflection on Covid management in NZ and its effect on one family)
I was invited by some friends from church to a New Year’s Eve party which was great; a bunch of people gathered around a barbecue while the kids had fun playing on a waterslide.
There were lots of people there, most of them friends, but every one of them was someone I had only met in the last year. These were “true” friends though, who treated me like a human being – not like ‘unvaccinated scum’.
Some had taken the vaccine, others had not – but none of them judges others on the basis of vaccination status.
My youngest son told me how happy he was to just be there and how he felt that he was dreaming.
It was so very different from the previous year when all of us could barely do anything thanks to the mandates and ‘vaccine passports’.
I don’t know if these new friends realise how much they did for us by just being “friends” and how much it means for me to see the joy return to my children’s hearts.
On one night as I sat in the lounge talking with my sister (actually she’s my sister-in-law but I usually refer to her as my sister because she’s like a sister to me), it felt as though we had never been apart. She left NZ on one of the last flights out before the first lockdown and was then unable to return for a very long time!
At last she was back with her children (who had basically grown up with my own) and pretty much took over the house, replacing our rice cooker with a new one then, when our television turned out to be broken (it worked sometimes), she insisted on replacing that too.
I had rather been looking forward to ditching television altogether and had been making plans for the extra space but it seems I may have been out-voted. Seems I’m perhaps the only one in the house who doesn’t want a television.
Of course, I appreciate her offer of a new one but sometimes a bit of peace and quiet (and extra space) might be nice – not that the kids are going to let me have much of that anyway- but then – thinking about it – I’m not sure I really want them to anyway.
I am actually grateful to have my family back together and sometimes that means giving up a few other things, but one thing that this pandemic has helped teach me is the value of family, true friends and people in general.
Last year was full of hatred, division, ‘vaccine passports’ and illogical mandates. What will this year bring? Do I expect that the government will turn around and apologise for it all and try to make up for it? Not really, I’m expecting that they will just move on with the next thing on their agenda, but I am determined not to let anything bring me down.
I have my family, I have my friends, but above all, I have faith in God and I know that whatever comes along this year, He can turn it around for good – just as He has done for me now.
I want to thank my family and my new friends for all the blessings they have been and to thank God for all He has provided.
Thanks also to Cam and The BFD for providing us with a place to speak out freely and for providing a community where we can all feel welcome and accepted.
