Catering With Benefits (3) - An Appetite for More - 59. Epilogue

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On 30 March, Sydney and the rest of NSW went into lockdown. All entertainment and hospitality venues had to close and restaurants could only serve take-away on a non contact basis. Personal services businesses also had to close.

Romel was the only one of the group whose workload increased.

Nurses were in high demand, so Craig worked some casual nursing shifts.

Charlie amended Poppy’s menu for take-away service. Snowy assisted and Justin handled orders and non-contact service.

Juanito continued his study online and worked reduced hours at Poppy’s.

Edward finally started writing and found a great site to publish online.

Brett, Jeremy and Rani went onto government social security.

Tristan also went onto social security but filled his time by making online videos of dancing lessons.

Andy worked from home making moderately priced jewellery. Dean assisted and set up an online store to sell the jewellery.

Raj worked in his parents’ restaurant doing take-away.

When the international border was closed, Daniel was stood down by Qantas, but he and some of his colleagues found work with the NSW Health, contact tracing team. Their training, discipline and their ability to deal with the public and remain cool in stressful situations made them ideal candidates.

Jonathan and Lachlan lived a comfortable lifestyle at Crystalline.

Just before lockdown, Desmond retrieved the car from Mallacoota and gave a local charity, instructions for letting the house, free to a deserving family.

Virginia ran the apartment at Potts Point without outside help and started volunteer work at a free meal charity. The demand for their services grew as more people became unemployed due to the lockdown.

Thomas moved in to Crystalline and paid his way by working around the property.

Bernard remained in France, but died from the disease in April 2020.

Max and Charles moved to their country property and wrote about their earlier life when they ran the local store, cafe and post office in the nearby village.

Alfred Prentice, the owner of the building that housed Poppy’s, Dean’s and Divas, was admitted to hospital with the disease. The day before he was admitted to ICU he said to his wife “You know, I closed that filthy Chinese restaurant and reported the other lot for drug dealing and now I think their Chinese curse is going to get revenge on me.” He may have been right; after two weeks in ICU he succumbed.

When Prentice’s wife put the building on the market, Craig contacted Jonathan, who was happy to make the investment and become their new landlord.

The float of Prices Prestige Jewellery went very well despite the pandemic and lockdown. Incredibly low interest rates on cash deposits caused many people to move their savings to the stock market.

As the final act in his grieving process, Thomas sought and received permission from Jared’s parents to add a plaque of his own to Jared’s memorial at the cemetery. As he was leaving the cemetery Jared spoke to him for the last time. “Thank you Thomas, now move forward in your life and find someone who will love you as much as I do. I will watch over both of you, in silence.”