Gran cooked up a storm for NHS staff and family
A GRANDMOTHER who cooked meals for an entire station of ambulance staff while caring for her family has been hailed a “Covid hero” for her efforts.
Linda Carpenter, from Cwmbran, looked after her two young grandchildren for four months while her daughter, Amy Carpenter, worked on the frontline as a paramedic.
The 61-year-old also found time to make scrubs and headbands for NHS staff during a spell on furlough from her job as a chef at Greenmeadow Golf Club.
Amy, 32, who nominated her mum for the award sponsored by Amazon, said she would not have been able to cope without her unwavering support.
“My mum has always been as good as gold. She’s always been there for me and gives me such amazing moral support,” she said.
“Working through the pandemic continuously, and not being able to hold my children for four months, was so hard - but she definitely got me through it.”
Amy, who lives in Glascoed, Pontypool, has been treating Covid-19 patients ever since the pandemic first began in March.
But she admitted that the high intensity of the job, and the uncertainty around the virus, took its toll on her.
“I was entering the unknown every single day. It was frightening,” she recalled.
“I was coming home from work really fatigued and worrying about the kids, particularly my son who has asthma.
“My 101-year-old nan also lives with us so I had to completely separate my house so I didn’t go near her. I had to use a separate bathroom and I couldn’t cook food in my own kitchen.
“My mum just made a family decision and took the children 50/50 with their dad which took a massive weight of responsibility off me.”
However, Amy admitted that she “broke down” one day and explained to her mum that she hadn’t had a decent meal in weeks due to her living situation.
“One day she decided to set up a table
– with a wine glass and some Ribena in it – outside her house and I had my own socially-distanced meal. It was the first time I’d had a proper dinner in about a month,” said Amy.
“Then she really stepped it up. She cooked for my entire ambulance station, she continually brought different food in all the time like puddings and cakes.
“She made scrubs for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, even though many of them couldn’t be used in the end as they needed to be of hospital-grade. She even helped look after my 101-yearold nan as I couldn’t go near her.
“I would be coming off night shifts at 6am or 7am and she’d wake up just to speak to me all the way home. If it wasn’t for her my morale would have been so low.”
Amy said that while it was heartbreaking not seeing her two children for months on end, she knew they were being well looked after.
“Everyone was saying to me that I’m the NHS hero, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it all without my mum.”
On receiving the accolade, Linda joked that it was a “nightmare” looking after her grandchildren during the pandemic.
“As I normally work full-time, having the grandchildren around did make things a bit nicer,” she said.
Linda said she enjoyed cooking for Amy’s ambulance colleagues who are based in Bristol.
“I just made a huge batch of meals, like sausage and mash with onion gravy, chilli con carne and rice and a whole load of apple crumbles.
“My other daughter who lives with me bought all the ingredients. It was great to do something in my own time at home.”
She added: “It is lovely to get this award, but I feel like there are other people who have done so much more.”
We want to hear about the Covid Heroes of your community.
All we need you to do is fill in a form by visiting https://form.jotform. com/203034765880356.
We don’t want to pick a winner – they’re all winners as far as we’re concerned – but we will contact as many of your heroes as possible to shine a spotlight on them in December.