Katherine | Matamata, Waikato

“Do you know, to be perfectly honest, I think I’m probably one of the luckiest people in the world. I’ve never had any major challenges. I’ve drifted through life being happy, and I’ve got great kids, and I have lovely grandchildren, I live in probably the best country in the world which is an amazing thing.

Covid-19 was a challenge, and it still is a challenge for most of the people in the world, but here in New Zealand, it was hard obviously for people who live alone, but one of the things it did for us in New Zealand was it showed us that we can be kind, and we can listen to science and believe it, and listen to leaders who really mean it. We can stay home and be kind, and now, we are free to do what we need to do right here in this country, without worrying about infecting each other.

To me, that was amazing. It was amazing how many things were happening that were so essentially generous, and community-minded. I’ve got so many friends who live alone, right here in this town, who were looked after, right from Day 1, who had their groceries brought to them. We used to go walking around the parks and stop and call up people inside their houses, and they’d come up to their front door and we’d had talks with them, socially-distanced. It was just an eye-opener, at how much underlying generosity and kindness we have here that came out. Big ups to everybody in New Zealand for being able to do that, and to get us to the point where we are now. I was born in the States, so don’t want to go back there, thanks.

I was born in Alexandra, Virginia. My father got a job when I was three years old as part of the United States Information Service, which took us overseas. So, our first port of call was the Philippines. He did two tours in the Philippines. One in Manilla, one in Cebu. We were always going back to the States for what they called ‘home leave’, and then we went to Cambodia, which is now Kampuchea, and then we thought we were going to stay in the States for good after that. So, we spent three years in the States, outside Washington DC, and then we had to go overseas again. We came to New Zealand, in 1967. Were you born by then? No. That’s my favourite thing to say. But, I’ve been here since I was 15, even though my accent still sounds a bit funny, it sounds funny to American’s, too. We’ve been back for visits, but my kids were born here, my grandchildren were born here. My sister still lives here. My parents both died here, and so did my brother, and this is home.

Through lockdown I learned that I could just get on with it, and I never used to be able to do that. I just got through the days. I’ve been through a thing with my husband where he’s had a cancer issue, and decided that he would change his diet through whole-food, plant-based. Changing from an ordinary standard diet to whole food plant-based, is huge. During lockdown, I did a whole lot more home-cooking, trying to make things from scratch, just so that they would be whole food plant-based. I’ve made my own hummus. I’ve made pesto. I’ve made vegan pesto, chipotle sauce, and I did lots and lots of knitting, because I have a whole lot of spare wool, and I made a whole lot of baby blankets. I found out that I could just find things to do, and get on with it, because that’s what we had to do. It was easy, because my husband’s lovely, and we didn’t fight. I’ve got reserves and resources, and it was really nice to know that if we have to do it again, I can do it.”