Finders International - How We're Working During the COVID-19 Crisis
LONDON, May 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As every business in the UK has found in recent months, the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to rethink and adapt at lightning speed to vastly different circumstances.
We want to reassure all our private client solicitors that we have put in place social distancing measures, with most of our staff working from home. Our offices in Edinburgh and Dublin are currently closed, although the London office has a skeleton staff allowing workers to maintain the two metres or more distance from each other.
Our staff working from home have remote access to our management systems, case files, document sharing, telephone lines and email while adhering to all data protection legislation. And again, as the rest of the world has done, we've embraced video conferencing tools allowing us to touch base with each other and our clients.
E-conferences
For many years now, we've been running successful Deputyship Development Days for solicitors and those in the public sector acting as deputies and dealing with vulnerable clients, free of charge.
Our latest event was held on 24 April in the form of an e-conference with talks on appointee bonds, investment issues and advice and tips on working during a pandemic. More e-conferences have been scheduled throughout 2020 while the live events have been postponed. You can find out more information and sign-up here.
O'Donnell brothers
However, we have also seen some losses during the pandemic; Jimmy O'Donnell, an elderly gentleman Finders International located after a newspaper appeal, sadly passed away from coronavirus, Independent.ie reported.
Jimmy and Fred O'Donnell spent nearly their whole lives believing they were an only child. Both had had difficult childhoods growing up in Ireland and neither of them knew their mother. The article reported how Jimmy grew up in an orphanage and would later move to Cheltenham while Fred was sent to Artane Industrial School after being arrested for begging on the streets. He would later move to Bradford.
It was only when Fred's daughter, Theresa Wardley, researched into their family tree did they realise that Fred had an older brother, Jimmy. To track Jimmy down, Theresa put out an appeal in The Herald newspaper in 2015 and Finders International responded.
"I have a family at last."
After our team located Jimmy, the brothers were able to meet for the very first time. Jimmy at the age of 80 and Fred at 78. The article reported that this was the beginning of regular family reunions with Fred and his family making the four-and-a-half hour journey to Cheltenham – the visits continued for the rest of Jimmy's life.
Fred told the Sunday Independent that they loved their weekends together and described Jimmy as "a very quiet man" who was quite religious, a tenor in a choir and a man with a giving nature; Jimmy had raised thousands of pounds for charity and helped at homeless shelters on Christmas Day.
Although the global pandemic kept the brothers apart in the final stages, it comes as a comfort to those who knew and loved Jimmy that after 80 years he was unified with a family he never knew existed. As Jimmy said on their first meeting, the article reports, "I have a family at last."
Danny Curran, MD of Finders International, said "It was an absolute pleasure being able to reunite the O'Donnell brothers and I send my condolences to Jimmy's family and friends – I will never forget the wonderful O'Donnell family."
During the pandemic, Finders International remain committed to providing a no-nonsense, fast and friendly service. If you have any questions or would like to find out about our services, you can contact us via email: contact@findersinternational.co.uk; telephone: +44(0) 20 7490-4935 or you can visit our website here. If you would like to get in contact for any media related enquiries, please contact media@findersinternational.co.uk.
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