by Kathy Mann, Author & Speaker

In the first week of 2020, I drove from my home in Johannesburg to Durban to spend a week interviewing my grandmother about her life for a book. It was fascinating to hear about how life was as a teenager for my grandmother during the Second World War in England.

She told me of how her entire neighbourhood was destroyed in seconds from a bomb blast. When the air raid sirens went off, some family members ran for shelter under the neighbourhood library and spent the night amongst neighbours who were seriously injured, some dying and some already dead. They emerged the next morning to find that their street was unrecognisable. They had only the clothes they were wearing and they had no idea whether their sisters and their father were alive or dead.

The story of how they struggled through the war and what life was like, seemed so foreign to me at the time. Now, a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, I’ve noticed a few parallels.

During the war, the government in England interfered with the liberties of people by enforcing curfews and blackouts. They had rules about being home by certain times and they had to block out their windows so that the enemy could not identify possible locations for bombing. In South Africa, we have a curfew currently and in early lockdown we were not even allowed outside our homes to exercise. The restriction feels fairly intense and it’s the first time in many people’s lifetimes that we experience this kind of impact on our lifestyles.

Many businesses and industries have been heavily affected by the pandemic and lockdown. In the war, English farmers were deeply impacted by government intervention. The farmers were still struggling to recover from the Great Depression and World War I when the authorities demanded that they double production. They were told what crops they could grow, they had to slaughter cattle in favour of growing grains and they were inspected regularly to ensure compliance. Some farmers had their farms confiscated when they failed to meet government quotas and rules. The lockdown has resulted in some business and industries struggling and closing down.

The people of England rallied together to support the troops and for their own survival. The enemy was clear during the war and the goal was simply to defeat Germany as quickly and decisively as possible. With much struggle and sacrifice on the part of the people, the enemy was defeated and the war was won. The enemy now is more complex to identify as we fight an invisible virus. People are divided on many fronts – wearing masks, whether the state implements the right policies and how seriously to take the threat.

As in the war, it’s probably very difficult to be in a leadership position - of a country or an organisation. There are conflicting stakeholder needs and it’s impossible to make everyone happy. There is so little we know and the impacts on the global economy will likely last for decades. There is much uncertainty. How much longer we will operate the way we do now? How will our country be affected? What does the future look like for our business?

My grandmother made many personal sacrifices and was deeply impacted by the war and everything that came with it. Her education was cut short, she lost a baby due to malnutrition from rations, and she lost all her belongings in the Liverpool Blitz. And yet she has lived a long and happy life. She looks back on those times knowing that they shaped her to be strong and mindful about spending, to make do with what she had, and to teach her children her values of family first.

We too will endure this war. We will emerge stronger and more resilient on the other side. Adversity shapes us and always comes with a gift in some form. Can you identify what gift lies within the challenges of the pandemic for you?

Kathy Mann is an author and speaker with a special interest in stress management. She is passionate about guiding people towards their best lives possible in harnessing their strengths and innate talents. She offers a stress re-framing service, which shifts beliefs to be more constructive around stress. She does this by educating her clients about the variety of stress responses that exist and how we can benefit from them. Kathy's books Avoiding Burnout and Harnessing Stress are available at major retailers and online at Amazon. She is a wife and mother of two beautiful daughters and lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.