The Pandemic one year on

Funny old year.

Tragic for many.

Traumatic for most.

This year?

Hopefully optimistic.

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I’d describe it as a very upsetting year Mick.
Upsetting to see - and I’ll never forget - pictures on our TV screens of critically sick people struggling for breath and life in our hospital ICU’s.
Personally upsetting that so many family occasions have passed which could not be celebrated with hugs and being in each other’s physical company:
2 Mothers’ Days
2 Easter’s (well it will be by the time lockdown ends)
Each of our Birthday’s
Have not been into DD’s new home

Others have felt worse losses when they have lost loved ones - many to Covid , couldn’t visit loved ones in care homes, or have had new grandchildren they haven’t held.

Reported

A week before lockdown last March we went to see the Book of Mormon in London and had lunch in a restaurant and went on crowded tubes. Then it all hit the fan. Over the summer when restrictions were lifted slightly it was lovely to catch up with family and friends. We even went to Sidmouth for a few days. Younger son managed Venice in August. Then lockdown again and we haven’t seen family for 6 months. My daughter split up with her long term partner and had to move house. Telling stories on zoom to my granddaughter is fun, but not the same! There was to have been a big family wedding but that had been put back to who I knows when! It was to have taken place in France with most of the participants coming from Australia.

All being well, at the end of this month, we can travel to London and meet up with the family, outside.

I remember feeling really scared this time last year with this unknown virus. There was no vaccine. We didn’t know much about it. Then one Friday evening in early April HM The Queen spoke to the nation. That was a sobering broadcast and highlighted just how very serious this was becoming. Then Boris got admitted to ICU. I felt really scared. I thought he was going to die.

It’s been a rollercoaster year. And in Europe too. Malta has just gone back down into lockdown. Paris too. It seems to spike in different places. Our NHS is swamped with an unprecedented backload of cases which is very worrying in itself for those concerned.

Good job we have vaccines now otherwise my anxiety would be sky high.

I’m glad we didn’t expect to be in this position a year on. I don’t think I would have coped as well as I have. This time last year I naively thought a couple of tough months and we’d be out the other end.

I’m very thankful that my family are all in good health. . My nhs nurse daughter had a nasty bout of covid but eventually recovered well. So many other families have suffered devastating loss.

My heart breaks to think of all the care home residents who have been apart from their families a full year. So many haven’t survived. Not all are elderly, so many young adults with severe learning disabilities in residential care who haven’t had physical contact with a loved one for a year.

Standing outside in all weathers for a year looking in the window trying to hold the attention of a loved one is soul destroying.

When the first lock down started there seemed to be an eerie quiet over where I lived. I remember feeling a bit scared but optimistic that we would get this under control. The weather was beautiful for weeks and weeks. I struggled to get a slot for a Tesco delivery and my daughter and I would immediately message each other when one opened up. No tinned tomatoes, yeast,flour or compost to be had anywhere. I went through spells of frenzied activity.
Now I'm fed up and have lost motivation to do much. My optimism has disappeared. Slowly my world has contracted and now going out brings fear, not joy. I do have hope though that once vaccination kicks in for the majority, we can live with this .

It has been a year of "waiting".

We have been lucky in my family, no deaths but lots of other health issues.

2020 should have been "my year" as had a lot of great new things planned (not big trips or anything but things I fully intend to do for myself). This was because I had lots of great opportunities lined up and exciting things to do around my creative work.
I feel a deep sense of loss. I accept this. But sense the impetus and joy of February last year is gone forever.

I've just re-read my post and it sounds a bit "me me me".
I didn't mean it like that.

I am profoundly grateful my family and those I love have pulled through this year - and great sadness for those who have not.

We had a very traumatic and long drawn out house move.

I was working 'behind the scenes' in a hospital, and weeks before lockdown, they had been gearing up for the expected influx of seriously ill patients. We were converting theatres to ICUs, ordering ventilators, oxygen, PPE, body bags, temporary mortuary, and much more.
I remember being amazed that the UK weren't taking this thing seriously enough. My daughter and her son caught the virus during an outdoor choir performance at the beginning of March.
Panic buying had started and I couldn't get paracetamol for them, but then the community help group appeared, and it was amazing how good people were.
Then the lockdown in all that hot weather. My OH was going quietly bonkers whilst I trudged off to work in a very unsafe environment.
So I retired, a bit early, but had to be done.
The year has been full of ups and downs, frustration, and a terrible sadness. So much suffering by so many, yet so much stupidity and selfishness by others.
Humanity at its best and at its worst.

This weekend last year DH and I were on our way to Cardiff to watch Wales v Scotland in the Six Nations Cup. When we left home the game was still on, by the time we arrived in Wales it had been cancelled. We had booked a couple of nights in a lovely hotel so we stayed. That was the last time we went anywhere.
DH was still working at the beginning of the pandemic, he took early retirement at the end of June as his company were making a lot of people redundant.
As a family we haven't had to deal with the sickness of Covid but we have known of people who have.
The worst thing to have happened was my youngest daughter being diagnosed with cancer and having to have two operations, totally alone. Fortunately it hasn't spread. As a mother I have wanted to be with her but I haven't seen either of my daughters since August and probably won't until the end of May.
It has been a difficult year for everyone. We have seen the best in people and unfortunately the worst.
We will get through this, tomorrow will be a good day.

So many took redundancy or early retirement.
Mostly exhausted.

Such a sad and traumatic year for so many. So much death, suffering and fear. Job losses, education disrupted.
I can't complain about our situation. We're missing family like everyone else. Husband has cancer but in remission. Has had a couple of hospital appointments but these went well. Others have not been so lucky.
Our daughter and son-in-law tested positive for Covid but thankfully had no symptoms.
I can remember at the start before we had it here, watching the reports from Italy in particular with the people singing from their balconies.
It was heartbreaking and I never thought for a minute it would be world wide. Naively now I realise.