From bushfires to quarantine

I was moved by a feeling of hopelessness witnessing the carnage of the bushfires of 2019, so become a Red Cross Emergency Services volunteer, just in time for the last of the fires to be extinguished in February 2020. Then the pandemic hit and I joined the Red Cross outreach program, providing telephone support to those in quarantine in Qld. Many hundreds of phone conversations later, I have been profoundly moved by the resilience, courage, humour and sense of community I encountered amongst those enduring quarantine, especially those who were bereft of loved ones and those who live daily with mental illness.