The pandemic years were difficult for everyone in New Zealand. But for some people, the difficulty went beyond lockdowns and uncertainty. They lost jobs they had held for decades. They were cut off from family members. They watched friendships of twenty-five years end in a single conversation. The True Face of Kindness was created because those experiences are part of our shared history, and they deserve to be heard.
The Stories We Haven't Heard
Most of the people in this book had never told their story publicly before. A science teacher who was escorted from her school after fifteen years and not allowed to say goodbye to her students. A nurse who was barred from the hospital where she had worked for nearly four decades. A grandmother who was wished dead in a supermarket by someone she had considered a friend. These are not abstractions. They are things that happened to real people, in real towns, and the effects are still felt.
Why Remember?
It would be easier to move on and not look back. Many people would prefer that. But the contributors to this book believe — and I share their belief — that understanding begins with listening. Not agreeing, necessarily, but listening. Whatever you think about the decisions that were made during the pandemic, the human cost of those decisions is real, and it is recorded here in the words of the people who bore it.
What People Found
This is not only a book about loss. A remarkable thread of resilience runs through every chapter. People who had lost their livelihoods started new ones. People who had been cut off from their communities found new communities — informal gatherings in private homes, walking groups, shared meals. The book documents not just what was taken away, but what people built in its place, often from very little.
A Record for the Future
Years from now, people will want to understand what the pandemic years were really like in New Zealand — not just the policies, but what it felt like to live through them. These thirty accounts, written by the people who were there, will be part of that record. By preserving these experiences honestly, we are keeping faith with our own history and with each other.