Ms. Rona finally arrived to my beloved Lowland, right after the krokus holiday , that’s how we called our Spring holiday, our Prime minister called us to stay at home and stop moving around if not really urgently needed, I worked for an American company at the time, my manager called me and asked me to stay and work from home as much as possible, work became a war zone, nobody allowed to come unless the manager signed the permit and one cough you will get angry faces around you to tell you to stay inside your own house, Kids got online school, our elderly been locked inside, all those people who depend on the ‘mantelzorg” been ignored, they didn’t get the visit as often as they used to be, some of them too scared to go outside and only ate bread with no hot meals, some of them couldn’t even moving around easily, they are depending on their life aid, like oxygen or their wheelchair….. Bad news keep hitting every day, every time you turned the TV, you heard about Ms. Rona and how much the damage are, about lots of people lost their loved ones and about the economy crashed all over the world.
One early morning I checked my Facebook and bumped to a cool site, some students from my beloved Eindhoven set up a site where people can offer and asking help during this difficult time, everything on volunteer base and you need to be healthy and follow the government protocol to be able to provided help, almost immediately I offered my time to help them with the grocery, walking the dog out and my time to chat trough skype… but I don’t think it was enough to lighten their burden, whilst cooking, I kept thinking and trying to find another way to help our elderly and all those people who depending on others, I also trying to find a way to lighten the healthcare staff day with something……..I finally realized I always cook too much for me alone, and sometime I have to bin them as I can’t finished all my food, Ithought let me ask if anyone want to have some home cooked meals, and of course I followed the protocol, putting my mask and gloves and make sure everythingisclean. I first cooked for 3 extra, and almost immediately all 3 meals gone in a second,I was so happy and went to deliver those containers myself, their face was million dollars’ worth. One even told me , she hasn’t got any hot meals for 5 days….. it brought tears to my eyes. I started to cook more and more from 3 extra every Wednesday I decided to cook for 40 peoples, it never crossed my mind that so many people in my home town suffering from hunger, its broke my heart.
Easter approaching and the smart lockdown became more and more harder, kids were getting bored and parents couldn’t managed to get all the extra works done , besides being parents, they need to be a teacher and nurse and all cost winning for the family, I was so lucky to be able to support myself, and have not a trouble to put meal on the table, I put an add on Facebook asking for help for food delivery and crafting some Easter eggs for me, as I came to realization I couldn’t do all those things myself anymore, and promptly lots of people offering help, I managed to get 20 people to help me, never dreamt my logistic knowledge will be handy now, as I need to making plan and put the timing right, so there will be no more than 3 people in my place in the same time, spending 1 day and night to make sure the planning going well, one more extra day to pick up the Easter cards, handmade by one of the volunteer, pick up the groceries and 1 more day to cook 4 different meals for about 50 elderly, sick people and some healthcare staff who too tired to cook. I was death tired but very happy when all the volunteers came and gone with the food containers and the goodies, I am not a millionaire nor a saint, I spent all my saving to do this , never occur in to my mind to ask for monetary help or publicity, I just want to help, but the newspaper and online streaming studio found me, I am feeling really bad, as I didn’t do this for publicity.
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Time goes by , the weather is getting warmer, and I made lots of new friends, a lot of people from all over Eindhoven wanted to help, I started to get meat, eggs, and soon some store offered me donation so I don’t have to spend my own money anymore, one day I even got meat and plastic containers delivered on my door without any paper, random people found me and help my cause.Everyday people from far and nearby wanted to help me with cooking and delivery , it was an amazing feeling, we kept making something to cheer their days up,.. and our major deed was Mother’s day.
I wanted to give all mothers and women something to smile about, I ordered mini wines, bought scented candles, beauty face mask, and some sweets, and together with 2 other women we spent a half day making a pamper package, from a florist I got 50 roses to give away, and from the Chinese store I got the fresh ingredients for the healthy Indonesian salad I wanted to make, also a friendly owner from the Turkish shop allowed me to picked up meat for the skewer for free, but this time I don’t have to do all the things by myself, volunteers helping me out in shift, so we won’t be too close to each other. We worked around the clock to make this event successful, the minute the last driver picked up the bag of containers left my place, I was crying, not from the tiredness, but the desperation to help more people, I wish I could help more of them, but my body refused to work with me.
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3 awesome moths, 3 memorable month , ended because I can’t make it happen anymore, I started a new job, I have to be in the office, so totally has no time to even cooked for myself, I am feeling so sad, so desperate to hand over the torch to others, but life is happening.
I still keep in touch with some of them, I wish I could do something more for the humanity……….but one thing I have learn from the lockdown time, Corona didn’t separate us from each other, it brought us more closer.
Eindhoven, June 1st
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