I would like to praise the work of Exeter’s Community Builders, particularly Zoe Hughes, the Community Builder for Pinhoe, who has been instrumental in helping me get my life back.
I came across her ‘What’s On – Pinhoe, Newsletter’ on Facebook and this started the ball rolling, with the mention of the Tuesday ‘Walks for Health’ around Pinhoe.
After losing my husband, and giving up my job at Pinhoe library to care for my father 24/7, social events had become a thing of the past. I felt isolated, suffered with stress and anxiety and had lost my self confidence and my ‘joie de vivre’. I had previously been a primary school teacher and a librarian and was always in the thick of things, quite outgoing, running events and helping people on a daily basis, so after my father’s death, I knew I needed to get out of the house and start socialising again for my own well-being. Walking around my local village seemed a good place to start, so I decided to give it a go and on my first walk I met Zoe herself.
Zoe was friendly, easy to talk to and informative in finding useful connections within the local community. Over the next few weeks, we talked as we walked and found that having several shared interests, she was able to recommend several groups I might like to join. In her role as a Community Builder, Zoe had already experienced their activities first hand so was able to both reassure and give me some relevant details beforehand. This gave me the motivation to contact those involved, using her name as a contact and opening a door for me. This really helped as I didn’t feel anxious about going somewhere new and on my own, after being virtually housebound for several years, caring for my father. I was able to relax and enjoy myself knowing that I had a friend to guide me forward.
Several months later, I feel alive again, much more ‘ME’ and realise that life can still be fun and exciting, and it’s all thanks to that first meeting with Zoe, a brilliant Community Builder, and her suggestions of what I might do to improve my life. She gave me the courage and belief in myself to move forward.
I now attend monthly meet-up sessions at The RAMM museum to explore & discuss their latest exhibitions. An activity I really enjoy, so much so, that I applied to join the RAMM Community Panel, using Microsoft Teams for my interview was ‘interesting’ but so worthwhile as I was actually selected as a new panel member.
At one of the museum’s meet up sessions, I reconnected with an old work colleague and after catching up on each other’s lives I was invited to join her book group. Since then I have joined two craft groups, one local to the village and one online and worldwide, making needle felted fungi!
I regularly meet up with friends both old and new and have even become a ‘lady who lunches’. I’m so busy that I don’t always get to go on the weekly walks around the village, but being out and about so much more, is keeping me both mentally and physically healthy so I don’t think I’m missing out too much.
I’m happy and looking forward to my future, something I wasn’t at the beginning of this year. I still keep in touch with Zoe as she really changed my life just by opening my eyes to new possibilities and giving me that little push in the right direction. We often see each other at local events and sometimes it’s me that can give her information of what is on and worth attending – A full circle perhaps!
To connect with your local community builder here.