Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Lots of families have been separated this year because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. It has been, and continues to be, very difficult for many of them, and we've had to find different ways of staying connected. Annie and Brian McNab, a couple in my electorate who couldn't see their grandsons Matthew and Samuel earlier this year, used the antics of two bears, a tiger and a flamingo to stay connected via 101 emails over 101 days. Blue, Ringup, Big Jim and Flamingo would feature in daily emails with an accompanying picture showing them on different adventures—from building a cubbyhouse to being a pirate and even making a fondue. Annie and Brian's house, at Shenton Park, also became a beacon for locals passing by, who stopped to see what their teddies were up to that day. The emails Annie and Brian sent are now in a book called 101 smiles in 2020 and all the profits from the sale of the book will go to the Telethon Kids Institute to help with their groundbreaking research. Among the challenges and pain of 2020, Annie and Brian found a beautiful way to be with their grandkids. I'm sure that everybody who buys a copy of this book will appreciate that many of the emails end with an excellent 'dad joke'—like this one: 'Do you know what you call a gorilla with bananas in his ears? Anything you like, because he can't hear you.'

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