Gingers C to E

Captain Tom: The lovely Captain Tom undertook to walk 100 times round his garden before his 100th birthday and hoped to raise £1000 in sponsorship for the NHS Charity.  He actually raised more than £32 million with the nation tuning in daily to see what the new total was - and just before I created this blog he was knighted by the Queen at Windsor Castle!  The medals I stitched are his pre-knighthood medals!!!  Thank you Sir Tom

Carers: wow what a great job they are doing!  This Ginger thanks all the carers who care for the sick and the elderly either in a care home,a hospice or in their own homes - and also the chiropractors, chiropodists, dispensing chemists and emergency dentists: and anyone else I’ve missed in the health / care sector ... Thank you all for doing a great job.!

Chefs: During lockdown we have been able to get takeaway meals and some delivery meals from all sorts of places that came up with a solution to customers not being able to go out for meals and restaurants not being able to open.  Our local restaurants not only cooked for paying customers but also provided free meals for housebound elderly who were self- isolating, and other provided meals for the local Homeless Project guests  Thank you all!

Children: What a year it has been for children:  Their lives have been turned upside down and they don’t understand the reasons.  Their parents are, at best, fine some days and almost demented with worry other days, and at worst are ill or hospitalised.  It’s very confusing for them but the children are doing brilliantly.  

The older ones missed exams and proms and saying goodbye to their school mates.   The younger ones are missing their friends and their teachers. Hopefully they will remember this year as the year mum and dad were home with them for months on end, the year they painted rainbows on paper, on wood, on the pavements and on the walls, and the year they bashed on saucepans and clapped and cheered at bedtime and no one told them to be quiet!

And a special mention to the children who have been attending school throughout so their key worker parents could go to work

 

Pharmacy & SOCO: This ginger represents people who are key workers AND local heroes!  The staff at the pharmacy are doing a great job even if the first encounter is a bit of a shock!  To Simon and the team, and also to the SOCOs and others who need to be protected by these unflattering outfits we say Thank You!!!

Delivery Drivers are a group of Key worker heroes that kept the country going: from delivering the strangely scarce loo rolls to the shops, to delivering medical equipment to the new Nightingale hospitals and COVID19 testing equipment to the test centres.  Thank you EHL and all the others who kept on delivering

Furloughed Staff: So many people were put on furlough - it looked a like 4 month paid holiday but I would have been bored within days.  Without this strange limbo between work and redundancy so many more would have lost their jobs: so to all those who sunbathed, and read, and learned new skills and volunteered for food banks, and dog walking etc, thank you and we hope that you have jobs to go back to 

Doctors along with other NHS staff have been amazing!  As well as working incredibly long hours, sometimes with inadequate PPE supplies risking their own health, in some cases they have had to move out of the family home where others are self isolating for health reasons. Thank you all

Engineers have kept working to make sure telephone lines, trains and power stations have kept working with strange changes to supply demand as we all got used to new ways of working from home.  Instead of working in teams they often worked alone to keep themselves COVID safe, but with inherent risks of working alone.  

Additionally engineers and maintenance crews have looked after traffic lights and gas and electric supplies and the other essential utilities that we rely on even in lockdown; it also represents the teams that keep dangerous structures safe and move fallen trees from the roads.  It’s also a thank you to the roadside services who have kept us moving on essential journeys.

Gingers F to L

F is for Frazzled Mums!!!  The village mums and dads have been amazing: They never expected to home-school their kids, especially not while in many cases also caring for self isolating elderly relatives and working from home themselves!  Many told me they hadn't done any school work with their kids, but I know their children have learned to cook, to ride bikes, to do somersaults on the trampoline, to grow (and eat!) vegetables and how to use Zoom to 'meet' up with classmates: they learned more than you know and you have done a great job!  Thank you!

Firefighters have been needed just as much through lockdown as at other times, and of course they have had to work together in close proximity regardless of the risk.  Fire Fighters and rescue teams are heroes all year round!!  Thank you for everything 

Funeral Directors - we owe a big thanks to all who deal with that side of “life”, including at the moment dealing with grieving relatives who can’t give their loved ones the send off they want.  Thank you

Ginge: People couldn't get out to be entertained but the pubs in the village arranged music nights so people could attend from their own homes.  This Ginger represents our own Ginge who raised money for the Wraysbury and Horton Voluntary Care charity: Thank you Ginge

 

Handyman and odd job people were in lockdown and isolation but have still answered the call of “my loo is broken”, “my shower is leaking” or “help I broke the  [insert object name]” and have ventured out to help their customers: I know this because I’m married to one !  

Lap Top users: This Ginger is to thank the people who have not been able to go to work- they have sat at their lap top on the floor, on the bed, amongst the children’s toys, anywhere rather than their comfortable health and safety approved desk!  This design was tweaked to represent different bank workers - I have a friend who works at a traditional bank who has been working long hours to process loan applications to help people through this; and other who works at an international bank who was tube travelling into London long after lockdown despite being vulnerable cancer survivor, and my older  daughter who works for an online bank whose team of developers have had to make all sorts of changes to allow us to bank under these changes circumstances.  It also thanks a member of our extended family who works for a Data Bank - we are all relying on the internet so much more which means we need him to ensure it’s working well.  Thank you to the bank staff and all the others who have managed to keep going thanks to there trusted laptop!