Woman publishes story about transformative lockdown
A woman from Wolverhampton has written a book about the transformative effect that lockdown had on her and her partner's lives, which has reignited her love of writing.
Rhianne Colley from Wednesfield knew that the pandemic was such an unprecedented time that she needed to record it, originally using an spreadsheet then developing it into a journal.
Now, she has a written a short story about her experiences, called Navigating Our Way Through Lockdown.
The 59-year-old retired teacher said: "It was crazy really - because so many weird things happened I knew I really needed to record this.
"I made a spreadsheet and said to Phil, when we're in a care home we can look back at this and remember 2020. I turned it into a journal and it snowballed from there.
"I sent it to lots of publishers and had some rejections, but JK Rowling had 12 rejections and if it's good enough for her, it's good enough for me.
"It's now been published by Olympia and it's nice to share our story with others.
"Writing is something I've always really wanted to do and lockdown gave me the ideal opportunity. As the saying goes, I always thought I had a book in me."
The retired secondary school teacher had to adapt the new world her and her partner were thrust into, which included re-envisioning his business.
Rhianne's partner, Philip Jones, was a part-time teacher and also ran a business which involved delivering training in schools.
Rhianne said: "We had to change his business model to online as the training courses he delivered in schools dried up when the schools shut.
"We spent 100 hours filming experiments that he'd normally do in schools."
Lockdown transformed the couple's life in many ways, and their fondness for walking the canals during this period of time has led to a surprising new investment for the pair - a narrowboat.
Rhianne and Philip now hope to go on staycations in their narrowboat instead of travelling abroad.
The author added: "For me lockdown was more of a positive experience because I turned it on its head. I knew we had to get on with it, and we could still go out for our walks.
"I''ve learnt that we're much more versatile than we thought we were and I don't take anything for granted now, especially loved ones."
