Wilbrahams Covid-19 Barry Haynes

This item for the Wilbrahams Covid-19 series comes from our local cheerful and efficient postman, Barry Haynes.

Martin Gienke

Severe Challenges

Having a child with severe disabilities is challenging at the best of times, with Covid-19 slightly more!

How do you cope? You just do. Josh is in the high risk category.  So, we must be as careful as we can.

Josh who would normally go to Sense College at Knapwell daily, misses his schooling and the interaction he has with his peers as well as the staff.  I’m sure they are all missing him too as he is quite a character and often has them in stitches!

He also misses travelling to and from College on the minibus and the general routine of his normal day.

Despite all this however, he is also more than happy being at home and the lockdown hasn’t really caused him any anguish.  He is more than happy watching ‘Only Fools and Horses’, ‘On the Buses’ and ‘The Chase’ to name but a few of his favourite programmes.  He is also a great football fan and was very excited on Saturday to watch the replay of the 1987 F.A. Cup final between Tottenham and Coventry.

Josh has a good family network to look after him and when I go out delivering the post he likes to be in charge!  As soon as I get home he gives me a report on what has been happening while I was out.  If he can get his mum and sister in trouble it pleases him greatly!

Royal Mail have been very understanding by offering me the option of working from home delivering the Little Wilbraham post again.  I set about finding suitable premises to work from.  I approached Mr Richard Brown, the Headteacher at the primary school who immediately offered me a classroom to use to prepare the post for delivery, and with the school not being open this seemed the ideal solution.  Richard and the school staff were very keen to assist with the provision of this vital service to the local community.  So far it all seems to be working well and I hope that everyone is happy with the outcome.

I hope you all stay safe and well in these strange, difficult times.

Barry Haynes