Listen to an audio version of Robert’s story here:

By Robert

My wife and I have only seen our daughter Eléonore, who has profound and multiple learning disabilities, once since November because since then – for very good reasons – her support agency has interpreted the social distancing rules in the strictest possible way. When we did see Ellie in December we stood in the garden of her flat and sang Christmas Carols to her through the window.

“We sang Christmas Carols to Ellie through the window.”

To try to stay properly in touch we now have a weekly four-way Zoom meeting between Ellie, her two brothers and Jacky and me. We sing her Beatles songs, wear funny hats and blow up balloons. Our get-togethers are often hampered by poor signals, lousy sound quality and Ellie not being able to see us properly if the Zoom is via a support worker’s phone rather than a projection on Ellie’s tablet or bedroom wall. Nevertheless we have a good noisy 60 minutes of fun.