For an idea to thrive requires faith, hard-work and a community. These elements came together to bring the idea of a community voice telling the story of living through the COVID-19 Level four lockdown period to life.

The brainchild of Lathee Verrall, coordinating and compiling a collection of stories, poetry and photos detailing people’s thoughts, feelings and perceptions of the isolation period has become her contribution to supporting the Te Anau community during the lockdown.

“This is a good community, a generous community and this is something I thought I could do”.

Mrs Verrall, a former English teacher at Fiordland College, is herself a published author and an avid reader. She also runs a book club.

The idea to capture people’s thoughts of the lockdown came to her when she recalled, as a teacher at the college, research projects her students had worked on, such as the national public protest movement against raising the levels of Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau in the 1970s, made her realise that although those events had been well documented, how it affected people, who were not in the spotlight, was not.

“There was no actual record of how it affected ordinary people”.

That lost opportunity was the driver behind getting people to write down their thoughts in their own words and voice as they lived through the event.

This was important, she said “as people’s memories of events often change over time as to how it actually happened”.

A Facebook post on the Te Anau Community page asking if anyone thought it was a good idea was the start of what has become a labour of love for the retired grandmother.

She was quite surprised by the response. “It just took off” she said, “lots of people said they would do it”.

Mrs Verrall initially thought she would collate any responses she got into a single document to be housed at the library but, once she began receiving the work, she realised that it could actually become a published book.

“I didn’t necessarily want a book of literary writers, I was just looking for everyday stories.”

The book will end up with about 30 written stories and poems included and, from more than 100 images submitted, she has identified about 45 that may be included as well.

She thought anyone reading the stories would be surprised at the quality and depth of the writing.

“It’s everyone seeing the same thing, but differently… telling their own narrative.”  

The accompanying images also tell a story, each one opening a window into the life and times of the historic event she said. 

The bulk of the work of receiving and editing was done by Mrs Verrall during the lockdown. She said the hardest thing was working on it alone with no one to double check things with.

More recently since moving to Level two, she has been assisted by Alina Suchanski, Alessandra Manngatti and Crystal Brindle.

More than one hundred people have already pre-ordered the as-yet untitled book and orders can be made via a link on the Te Anau Community Facebook page 

It is presently with designer Tim Mann who is tasked with the design and layout and Mrs Verrall expected it would be completed and published within three to four weeks.