During the last six months it has been a bit more of a challenge to give the usual support BGSG has given for the last twelve years.
Just like so many we have had to be creative and to learn new skills.
It was a very hard decision to announce that we were suspending face to face support group meetings, but it was essential for everyones safety.
So we embarked on the virtual meetings, there have been many hiccups along the way, working out how to be able to see everyone at the same time, trying to attract someone’s attention because they have muted their microphones, trying hard not to talk over each other. We have taken to waiting to see people’s walls, books, pictures, plants and some have been very adventive and have used exotic backgrounds!
What has been great is that we have all learnt together along the way.
As you can see not quite perfect!
As with all these new things there are positives and negatives, but one advantage is that it doesn’t matter where in the world a grandparent may be, they can join us.
We have had some really good discussions and debates over the months, and every opinion is valued, I certainly come away from every meeting having learnt something.
Most importantly for me is that grandparents are enjoying the coming together and sharing their experiences, they all show compassion for one another.
I don’t think we will be able to commence face to face support group meetings until next year, or indeed before there is a vaccine available for all.
Even when we are able to start up again, I hope to be able to carry on with the virtual meetings, reaching more and more grandparents from all over the UK and around the world.
A huge thank you to all of you who have decided to work with the technology and to allow it to work for us all.
On another note, thank you to those of you who have allowed me to interview you, the feed back has been great and other grandparents have really found comfort from listening to you and your experiences. There are more to come. You can listen to them on our You Tube channel, amongst the videos there are some readings I did as a lockdown challenge of Winnie-the-Pooh, I have yet to complete my challenge, but you can skip those! https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos
Finally, the poetry book we have been working on for a very long time, is about to be released, it will be available to buy on the website. I hope you are as pleased with it as we are, it is as a result of me writing poems for our granddaughter over eleven years, and then asking other grandparents if they would like to write a poem to be included. it has been such a privilege to read the heartfelt words of others and to see it actually come to fruition has been very emotional.
It has been a long journey of getting a proof reader, designers, illustrator and printer, consequently has been costly but I hope you agree it has all been worth it.
Please keep safe everyone we are not out of the woods yet.
