Borough ladies launch their own newsletter to keep in touch during pandemic

The past 10 months of Covid restrictions have prevented us all from meeting up with our friends and family, but one group of Wigan women have taken to keeping each other company digitally with their own newsletter.

The Lancashire Ladies Life in Lockdown is a group of women from across the borough who used to meet up regularly in person, but were forced to think outside the box when the first lockdown was imposed last March.

One member, Pat Rayner, had the idea of putting together a regular newsletter where they could all share updates on their lives and keep each other entertained.

The updates include regular news, videos, jokes, poems and words of wisdom to send to each other.

“Very often what we send and receive makes us smile, just what we need,” said Pat.

“Sometimes we see something that makes us stop and think and count our blessings. But whatever it is, it helps us stay connected and keeps us motivated.”

“There are 15 ladies altogether in the LLLL. Many of us belong to the Wigan Women’s Lecture and Luncheon Club where we would meet regularly to listen to a guest speaker before a catch up over lunch.

“Some are members of the Parbold and Wigan Flower Clubs whose monthly meetings would include flower arrangement demonstrations and always a coffee and a chat.

“I am also on a committee that organises fund-raising lunches twice a year in aid of Cancer Research UK and would see most of the ladies there too.”

Pat went on: “When life changed in March I wanted to make sure we didn’t lose that social connection and those friendships we had built up, it was too important.

“Individual phone calls were ok, but it was about keeping together and I had the idea of writing a round up of everyone’s news and sending it out to the group.

“Of course I needed contributions, so I asked the ladies to let me know how they were keeping themselves occupied in lockdown life.

“These updates proved very popular and became a regular item now known as ‘The Sunday News’ that I put together in a weekly group email so that we can share our stories and pictures of the week’s activities.”

She added: “Now winter has set in and we are locked down once again. But this time it is too cold to sit outside and we cannot meet at all.

“And so now more than ever, the LLLL Sunday News is important to us. The ladies look forward to this news coming, it’s amazing what stories people have to tell.

“It reminds us that we are not alone and helps us cope with this grim situation. And it gives us hope for the future, until we can all meet again.”

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