Coronavirus diary, Wednesday 30 December

Robert and Rosemary (right) with Jim and Betty Wise, Des Moines, 1982

As with my German friends, Werner and Ursula, Jim and  Betty Wise in Des Moines, Iowa, and Doreen Murphy in New London, Connecticut have kept me up to date with their coronavirus experiences.and it’s very much in line with ours.

Forty years ago I was at Cardiff airport to welcome the first Friendship Force group to Wales from Iowa, 200 parents and children, visiting Britain for the first time. President Carter had just founded the charity to encourage international friendship.

I became involved when, as county public relations officer, I was called at one day’s notice to go to Iowa to brief the visitors on Cardiff and Britain.

I spent a week at the at the home of their leader, Jim Wise,  a Des Moines education chief, and his wife Betty, secretary to the finance minister in the state parliament based in the city.

After being officially welcomed at the airport by Cardiff’s lord mayor, the visitors were taken to the city hall to meet their hosts with whom they stayed a week.

The visit was a great success, the highlight, folk dancing on a float in the Lord Mayor’s parade.

Friendship Force is still going today, as is my friendship with Jim and Betty who, in a Christmas letter, tell of their experiences ‘in this challenging and perplexing time’.

In lockdown at their residential care home since March, they said they had been ‘blessed with a wonderful team of caregivers', but had not seen their grandchildren since January.

In Connecticut, former teacher Doreen tells me by email of her experience in very severe restrictions and how she also misses her family.

One of her neighbours was quarantining in a tent in her garage - the only place to ‘hunker down' -  as she has three girls, her husband and mother living in the house. ‘We have a foot of snow, so it is not very comfortable’ for her’ said Doreen.

Like Jim and Betty, Doreen is not despondent. They see hope for  the new year.