Posted on 03/28/2022 3:37:39 PM PDT by nickcarraway
When Simon Turner reached his lowest point back in May 2020, he never would have dreamed how his life would turn around
When Boris Johnson announced a nationwide lockdown on March 23, 2020, in an attempt to curb rising cases of coronavirus, few realised just how much would change. The past two years have seen people lose friends, family members and jobs, while for others it has marked new beginnings. As Wales prepares to lift most remaining Covid rules on Monday, March 28, most of our lives have already changed forever.
When Simon Turner reached his lowest point back in May 2020, he never would have dreamed how his life would turn around. Two months into the first lockdown, the former scaffold estimator was suffering from serious mental health issues having been put on furlough from his old job and home schooling his three daughters.
"It was not knowing how long furlough was going to be, and balancing that with home schooling my kids at the time," he said. Things reached a head in May of that year when Simon intended to take his own life. If it hadn't been for a huge stroke of fortune that day, things might have been very different.
Read more:The only two Covid rules that remain in place in Wales
"I leaned back and knocked over a box full of letters from my grandparents that I've had since I was about 17 but never opened," he said. Opening the box, he discovered papers from his grandfather Joseph, who was originally from St Lucia in the Caribbean. Among the stacks of letters were a host of handwritten recipes his grandfather had gotten from his mother's cookbook.
During the Second World War Simon's grandfather had joined the British Merchant Navy aboard the SS Graigwen as a chef's steward where he planned menus, controlled stock and compiled supply lists. In 1940, the ship he was on embarked on a voyage leaving New York as part of a supply convoy through the Mediterranean.
During its trip it was attacked on October 9 that year, and the following day it was sunk and seven crew members were lost. The remaining crews - including Simon's grandfather - were picked up by the HMS Enchantress and brought back to the UK, where his grandfather met his grandmother in Cardiff and settled. "There were all these recipes he had off his parents," he said, remembering how he leafed through the decade-old papers he'd previously never touched.
Where to get mental health help and support Below are some of the helplines and websites that can help you:
Samaritans operates a free 24-hour phone service every day of the year. Just call 116 123 to speak to someone if you need help.
Alternatively, if you prefer to write down how you’re feeling or if you’re worried about being overheard on the phone, you can email Samaritans: jo@samaritans.org
PAPYRUS is a voluntary organisation which speaks openly about suicide and supports teenagers and young adults who have may suicidal thoughts.
You can call Papyrus' 'Hopeline' on 0800 068 31 31, text them on 0778 620 96 97 or email them: pat@papyrus-uk.org.
The phone and text line is open from 9am to 10pm weekdays, and from 2pm to 10pm on weekends and bank holidays.
mind is a mental health charity that provides advice and support to anyone experiencing a mental health problem.
Among its useful support and information pages, mind shares 'ways to help yourself cope in a crisis' here
Pete's Dragons provides specialist support and advice for anyone affected by suicide in any way
You can phone the charity on 01395 277 780 or email them: admin@petesdragons.org.uk.
Instead of going through with what he had earlier intended, Simon went downstairs and cooked some traditional corn bread. With the UK in the midst of the pandemic, he decided to hold an event that month in aid of the NHS Charities Together to help provide health staff with PPE, raising nearly £500 and proving a hit with his home-cooked dishes. "There was a queue for half a mile down the road," he said.
In August 2020, celebrating his birthday, Simon bit the bullet and decided to set up his own business. He said: "It was August 19, 2020. We couldn't go out, so I celebrated my 40th by opening my own company." When he returned to his day job as a scaffold estimator, his manager noticed that something wasn't right and persuaded him to take some time off.
"I was on very strong medication for my mental health," he said. "The only time I felt anything was when I was cooking. My manager told me one he'd seen these pictures I'd put up on Instagram smiling and cooking. He said he'd never once seen me like that while I was working."
Simon, 41, said the pandemic has "changed his life" (Image: Taste of Turner Ltd)
Taste of Turner will soon run out of a repurposed sheep trailer (Image: Taste of Turner Ltd) Simon worked on his business idea and finally took redundancy from his scaffold job last September after 24 years. He now runs Taste of Turner full-time from Barry serving up a mouth-watering array of Caribbean dishes such as ackee and callaloo, coconut curry chicken and Jamaican reggae curry. He's home-based at the moment but exciting plans are afoot to run the business from a repurposed sheep trailer which will be located in Sully Sports and Social Club in Penarth.
As well as churning out impressive amounts of food to the public every week, Simon is also involved in the African Caribbean Family Social Club, which brings together families from different ethnic backgrounds on the first Sunday of the month at the Castleland Community Centre.
"Covid has changed my life," he said of the pandemic. "If I hadn't had the bad experiences I never would have stumbled and knocked over that box in the attic, gone downstairs and cooked, put it on Instagram and got 100 likes.
"There is a feeling of acceptance for the first time," he said of how his career change has been received by punters. "The feedback I get is lovely. I never had that in my old job. You only got feedback if you did something wrong."
'It's completely changed my life' Mags John, 59, from Llanelli, decided to change her lifestyle after home baking caused her to gain weight during the early months of the first lockdown in 2020.
"I love cooking and baking and started doing a lot of it. Obviously we'd eat what I made and my husband walks a lot so he can keep the weight off, but I was a proper couch potato. I wouldn't walk across the road to the bus stop."
A few months into lockdown Mags became concerned about how her weight gain might affect her if she caught coronavirus. "I caught myself in the mirror at home one day and I thought 'that is not me - that's a walrus'," she said. "They were saying at the time that the virus could affect heavier people, and I thought that I might die if I caught it. I thought 'I have to do something.'"
On June 1, 2020, Mags turned over a new leaf and cut out many of the less healthy foods she'd been eating regularly in an attempt to lose weight. She cut out carbohydrates, bread, potatoes, pasta and cakes and began eating more green vegetables, salads and fish.
Her daughter bought her a Fitbit and she started walking and exercising, firstly by following workout DVDs and then outside. "It wasn't going on a diet - it was a lifestyle change," she said. "I started walking and I could see with my Fitbit how many calories I was burning. That really motivated me."
Mags John, 59, from Llanelli lost four stone during the pandemic (Image: Mags John) Mags has shed four stone since the pandemic began, has climbed the likes of Pen y Fan and taken part in the 10km Race for Life in Llanelli last September.
"I have a totally different lifestyle than two years ago. I was a lazy sod. I used to struggle with stairs - I'd get up to the top and be breathless. A couple of weeks before the Race for Life I climbed Pen y Fan, and that was a real achievement for me. The pandemic made me realise how unfit I was and that I needed to change. I am so proud of myself."
Mags now runs 5km at least four times away and confessed that she still allows herself some "cheats" like chips and biscuits, provided she is maintaining her weight. She said: "It's completely changed my life. It's costing me a fortune in new clothes though because I've gone down three or four dress sizes!"
'We're definitely a lot closer as a family' Lydia David, 29, from Newport, said she feels the pandemic has brought people closer together. She home-schooled her two kids for much of the pandemic, and although it was difficult at times, she said that time and going back to classrooms has given the family a newfound appreciation for each other.
"We have not lost any family members, no-one lost their job," she said. "In that sense we are the same as before. But in another way we have more of an appreciation of how precious life is.
"My kids are ten and seven and with the schools being closed, we were stuck in our bubble. You get sick of each other when you're with each other seven days a week, and it takes a toll in that sense. The kids got sick of each other and a lot of the time at home was trying to stop them from arguing. But they were lucky they had each other - others didn't have anybody."
"Since they've been back at school they appreciate each other more, because they go to school and see their own friends. My husband works four days a week and two days off, and we really appreciate that time off now. Whereas before we might have spent it stuck at home, now we plan things."
Lydia said she found the pandemic difficult as she was unable to see her family - most of whom live in England - for months on end. "We had a Zoom Christmas with everyone, which was strange. You appreciate seeing people in person a lot more now. You realise what's important, and it grounds you I think.
"We are definitely a lot closer as a family. Sometimes you think it's a bad thing but in some ways it's been a blessing in disguise."
For confidential support the Samaritans can be contacted for free around the clock 365 days a year on 116 123
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I certainly wasn’t stuck in my home for two years. Alaska was briefly shut down in early 2020, but life went back to normal for me after that.
A guy I work with was going to help a friend who’s mother in the lower 48 died, with no other family around. The guy I worked with had planned to drive a trailer down, load up, and help his friend get things back to Alaska.
Well, Canadistan and their asinine rules won’t really allow for that. So the guy o work with, won’t be helping his friend out. Sad.
I hope the politicians with their Naziesque mandates receive a hundred-fold of what they dished out to everyone else.
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