3 years ago today……

It was certainly a very odd time! I was working 2 days a week in both a specialist hospital and a local general hospital, so saw it coming some weeks before. I had been expecting to retire fully. We lost some colleagues early on. The week after lock down was frantic and spent triaging all the cancelled appointments ( at the hospital) setting things up so I ( on the shielding list) could keep things running and do as much from home as possible and trying to upgrade my very poor IT skills! All non urgent clinical services were cancelled and almost all admin - and IT staff ( essential to almost everything!) were sent home so nothing really worked.
Those first few weeks were stressful and exhausting - but eventually life slowed down. We live semi rurally but very close to what is usually a busy noisy motorway - but it was so quiet and peaceful. We saw when the army lorries started to distribute PPE and supermarket lorries food. The weather was lovely so there was a peaceful side!

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202304/medium-740610-f4f21097-c3fa-44aa-afa7-8d2eedb4ecad.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202304/medium-455153-41b1196c-2570-41bf-81aa-8e2b93a1a1ea.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202304/medium-669169-3b64f2b8-70d5-403e-b15f-1bf09cb86bb9.jpeg

This is a lovely book.
A photographic memory of Lockdown - people, places, worries, loneliness, isolation, coping, 'making do', new hobbies and pastimes etc.

How we coped - or didn't ...

I was depressed. I almost expected to catch the virus. Could see no light at the end of the tunnel. However, one spark of human kindness kept me going. My younger neighbours, who already had deliveries from two supermarkets, asked me to add my requests to their weekly lists. The virus only caught up with me two years later and then I was unaware of it until I had to have a test prior to admission to hospital for a minor op!

Two other residents in our retirement block, a lovely couple also died suddenly from Covid. A very sad and frightening time before we had vaccinations. 💖💙💔💔

I was and still am living in a retirement scheme of independent (living) flats....
Within a few days my downstairs friend and neighbour said that she wasn’t feeling very well. She was only in her mid sixties. The next thing I knew she was phoning from hospital struggling to breath and telling me she was about to be put on a ventilator. She was basically ringing me to bid her farewell. Her final words to me being “love you” 😢 Completely well one minute. Dead the next. She was very popular for her warmth humour caring and inclusive attitude towards others. Also here intelligence and creativity. Heartbroken doesn’t even touch it. I was overwelmed with shock and sadneas.. That for me was three years ago almost to the day. 💖💔😢

Shut in my home, birthday week, saw no-one, spoke to no-one apart from my dog, for months, so was decidedly fed up and depressed, but who wasn't?

We had watched cruise ships being denied docking in far away places. We watched Italy suffering, and never thought it would reach our shores.
We had just returned, thinking we would be off away in a short while, to then remain for the best part of 2 years.

I remember it all feeling very surreal. DH and I were glued to the TV news several times a day, especially those special COVID bulletins with Boris, Chris Whitty, Patrick Valance etc etc. It was so very scary and my daughter had begged us not to go out AT ALL, even for the one hour per day permitted exercise. So we stayed at home, had online food shopping and I did exercises in the evenings as I wasn’t “allowed” to go for a walk. Fortunately the weather was absolutely wonderful for weeks on end and I spent a lot time time in the garden. The worst thing for me was not seeing my adored twin granddaughters who were 2 years old and who we had looked after for 2 half days per week. I felt very upset about that, and missed them dreadfully, but at the same time grateful that we were retired from work, able to keep safe at home and not mix. I found the images of hospital staff in hazmat suits absolutely terrifying, like something from a sci fi film. I was in absolute awe of the doctors and nurses An awful time and our only hope was the vaccine, which we knew would be a long way off - it turned out almost a year’s wait, but they pulled out all the stops to have it ready as soon as possible. I did enjoy the quiet and unpolluted atmosphere (once we could go out for a walk) and feeling that the world was somehow resetting itself to be a better place where we would appreciate each other more and value the simple things in life, at least for that period in time. I hope it never happens again.

We were enjoying the unexpected benefit of a really warm and sunny spring. (Looks out of window and glares). We made a timetable to keep ussane in the first lockdown and the parts of it tht have remained are: homemade curry on a Sunday night and crime drame on TV on a Tuesday.

I was still working at a preschool for key workers children, and worrying about my 2 daughters who were both due babies in the June and July 20, all turned out well in the end, I ended up being furloughed for a few weeks, my husband was also furloughed so we cleared our house/loft as we wanted to move when covid was over, just for info, the impact covid had on preschoolers was awful, upsetting and emotional to see them coming together again when we opened up again, socialisation, behavior, was impacted badly

Looking back, I’m surprised at how little we actually worried about catching it.
We were very worried about our business, we were worried about the children who were living with us, and our other children and their families, but a serious illness, which could have potentially killed us, seemed somehow remote.

I think the thing that scared me most at the beginning was finding out that, if you were going to be very ill with covid that kicked in in the second week, because I realised that, if I caught it I would be waiting for that to happen. As it is I didn’t catch it because we basically shut ourselves off from the world. The second disappointment was realising that the vaccine didn’t prevent transmission or give long term protection. I didn’t keep a diary but did message my daughter a lot so I have a record of what we discussed during that time.

I kept a diary from the beginning of the first lockdown, and took a photo each day which I printed out and stuck on the page with the account of the day. In the first few days our family brought us flour (from a local windmill) and shopping as we decided not to go into supermarkets. I was making bread and growing bean sprouts in the airing cupboard. We started playing Bridge on line with my sister-in-law and her husband and planned to use Zoom to stay in touch with our community choir. (This worked as we have survived!) It was sinking in that this was going to be a very difficult time and we had 'wobble days'.

I remember feeling unusually exhausted and my husband commenting I looked "peaky" Not surprising as I was coming down with Covid. Two days later I became really ill and remember wondering "Is this it? Am I going to die" After 2 dreadful weeks I thankfully recovered. I spent the rest of April sunbathing in the garden and enjoying the quietness.

Threw me into complete panic. Expectation that the future would be like some apocalyptic film. Scared to go out shopping and followed those lockdown rules to the letter.
A few weeks in wasn't it bliss to have the main roads so quiet. We looked forward to our walks. Mastered facetiming. Zoom and online grocery shopping.. Back to basic recipes, Growing our own, and decluttered the house with lots of reminiscing. Furlough gave the kids an opportunity to home school and enjoy their little ones in a way not known before. We facetimed friends, did group quizzes and dressed up at the weekend to pretend we were on nights out. It was good to just 'be' although the fear of covid , illness and maybe even death was never far away and the heartbreak of not being with loved ones who so needed you was often too painful to bear.
Now we live along side Covid and are having to come to terms with the chaos it has caused. Emotionally, physically and financially. But ever grateful that we are here at all and never forget those tens of thousands of folk who died or are suffering long term health issues.

My friend’s mother rang her for an urgent request for loo rolls, she went to every supermarket but couldn’t get any.
She rang her mother and said she’d keep trying, but as yet hadn’t been able to get any, her mum said, not to worry too much, she had six packets, but didn’t want to run out.
I only remember shortages of pasta, but we never actually ran out, my granddaughter got into baking, and flour was a problem till a colleague got us some from a farm shop at a massively inflated price.
One thing we couldn’t get was paracetamol.

I remember the silliness of folk rushing to buy loo rolls !!!
The shelves were then empty for weeks & we had to get some from a friend who had loads !

To add, later on in the first year of covid, despite following all the precautions, our household succumbed to covid (pre vaccine development). Mr GO was taken by ambulance into ICU, there was talk of him being intubated, and I wondered if I was facing widowhood. Tbh, I was so out of it myself, that it wasn't until later into the weeks of illness for all of us, that this really started to sink in. Thankfully we all got through it and can look back and hope this scenario never happens again.
However, apart from the decent weather, the privilege of getting to know our foxes, and our recovery, there is just nothing positive I can find about it - clearly a glass half empty point of view!

I suffered with a tooth abscess the week lockdown began and of course dental clinics closed but the manager managed to drop a script for antibiotics thru my letter box..antibiotics didn't work and had to request a 2nd script and download pictures of my gums..soo much pain and the 2nd lot didn't work either so was desperate and had an emergency appt where another dentist tried to drain the abscess ..very stubborn abscess - long story short had to have tooth removed because they couldn't do root canal at the time..so all in all i lost an upper molar which is nothing compared to people who lost their lives..

I remember when the first lockdown was lifted, in July I think. Younger son and I drove up to Kensington to see elder son and his family. They were using a friend’s flat while they finally had a new kitchen fitted in their place in Kew. What a nightmare journey. I don’t often drive in central London and I must have driven over one particular bridge several times! My sat nav was misbehaving too.

Was busily filling the shelves in store with Easter cards when the boss called said down tools leave store go home stay there until further instructions. 3 weeks of bliss followed, peaceful roads, beautiful weather, no hustle and bustle, family all safely at home with there families. Loved every blooming second.

I do think the amount of lockdowns and restrictions have also had some negative effects as well. But they did in an odd way make you appreciate things more as they were lifted my DH was very pleased when he could go to the pub again.

I could not see my Mum, who lives on her own, 350 miles away from me. She spent her 94th birthday on her own and her 95th birthday too.
I could not see my new baby grandson, very difficult as he was in hospital a couple of times and we could not help the family.
Both sons were key workers, I worried about them at the time.
The legacy of lockdown has left me with anxiety, I get panic attacks in crowded or enclosed spaces. I am just about getting back to normal. It was truly horrible and so sad for those who lost loved ones.

Three years ago, two days after lock down, my husband was admitted to hospital. I had to leave him in a wheel chair and was told 1 could not stay, a nurse took him in.
I went home and that was the last I saw of him for three weeks. I was allowed to visit in full PPE three times, no family was allowed and the last time he sadly passed but I was so glad to be with him to say my final goodbye.
What an awful year it was for everbody.

Being an introvert I quite enjoyed lockdown. Both DH and I retired so need to go to any work. Only needed to do shopping. Problem is I am find it hard to get back into 'real' life and don't really want to go anywhere!