We bring you Letters from Lockdown: the first-hand experiences of older people in Camden during the Covid-19 crisis.
At Ageing Better in Camden we firmly believe in amplifying the voices of older people in our communities. Now, more than ever, we strive to support our members to raise their voices and share their experiences.
Far from being a great equaliser, the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed some of the deepest inequalities that have often remained hidden in our society. Our members have been writing a weekly newsletter for one another, to keep informed and connected in these challenging times. It has also brought us all closer together as we share our personal experiences of lockdown.
Here, our members share their experiences. Keep checking in as we add more and more letters!
“I’m organising my mother’s wartime letters. Many of their anxieties, hopes and fears relate closely to the way people in isolation and those missing loved ones are feeling today.”
by Nikki Haydon
Click here to read Nikki’s letter
“Photo-walks and Instagram in my ‘corona uniform’”
by Celia Cockburn
Click here to read Celia’s letter
"It is diaries of ordinary people as well as politicians and celebrities that produce our history.”
by Frances
“This lockdown time has meant that I have learned some new digital skills”
by Kate Harwood
We are writing and performing a weekly (Zoom) soap in lockdown
by Jim Mulligan
Click here to read Jim’s story
"I indoctrinated myself to a plan to ‘live with myself and by myself’"
by Harriette
Click here to read Harriette’s letter
“I live on my own and lead a fairly solitary existence, but I am far from lonely: on a normal week I would see a large number of people. That has of course changed.”
by Andrew Allaz
Click here to read Andrew’s letter
“Any other blanket rule would have been dismissed as discriminatory. But dealing this way with old people seemed to be acceptable”
by Diana Scarrott
Click here to read Diana’s blog.
“COVID Spring - a poem”
by Ags Irwin, Chair of Kilburn Older Voices Exchange (KOVE)
“We’re doing OK, us vulnerable oldies. Valuable oldies.”
by Sue Heiser
Click here to read Sue’s letter
“Oh, how I miss my singing”
by Phyllis