3 years ago today……

Our 3 adult children were bringing our shopping to us and handing it over the back garden wall so we didn't need to go out ... except to walk the dog in our nearby park. As has already been said there was little traffic and it was so quiet. And the weather was beautiful. I can't believe how calm I was about it all and we really didn't know what was going to happen.
A very strange time indeed.

I remember thinking that we would be fine as we are an island and the government will close the borders .... hmmm.
I remember thinking thank goodness my OH is not here ... he would have been frantic with worry.
I remember struggling to cope as OH had died a few weeks before ... I faced the prospect of lonely grieving separated from family and friends. It was hell.

I was/am clinically extremely vulnerable so facing the prospect of not seeing my grandchildren. It’s my birthday and wedding anniversary date. Our daughters appeared at the end of our garden with gifts we could plant. They’d written a song, they held up the words, and danced. No hugs but such a strange yet happy day.

It was a worrying time, DH was having treatment for cancer, I had just finished my treatment. My BIL was dying from cancer in another country and we were unable to be there to support my sister.
Our home in the Lakes was on the market and we couldn't travel to sort it out.
We managed reasonably well for shopping, became much more organised at using up ingredients and planning meals.
Three years on my life is completely different, I have lost five family members since the start of the pandemic and no longer take anything for granted.

harrigran 🌸🌺
My husband was in treatment and died last year. One of my few consolations was to remind myself ‘at least we aren’t doing this in the pandemic’. Life changing period in our lives

Oh this has brought back so many memories. I’ve just been to dig out my 2020 diary. I’d forgotten how it was my sons 40th birthday and Mother’s Day on the same day. We exchanged gifts on the doorstep, and I’d bought him a huge pack of toilet rolls with happy 40th written in them !
I went into work the 23rd of March and was told I could go home if I thought it best. I still had my frail mum so decided for her sake it would be best. I went home and immediately started spring cleaning, did every kitchen cupboard thinking this won’t last for long I’ll be back at work next week. How wrong was I.

My reaction was anything but calm which is not like me I usually cope at a difficult time. I was really scared for our DS and DD and their families. Our twins had started nursery and that abruptly came to an end. Our youngest GD was a babe in arms and we went to see her once a week. I was taking shopping to our DS and DD houses until the restrictions started.
The restrictions on travel tore me apart not seeing our family really upset me like life had come to a stand still it was unreal. I would put a brave face on when they WhatsApp us but inside I was shattered. I cannot imagine what people felt like with family who lived abroad it must have been a living hell.

I wonder how the children will remember it.
Our granddaughter, who would have been ten, came into work with us quite often, because there was no one but family there, and it kept her busy, she says she looks back on the first lockdown with affection, but then it started getting boring,
I remember the weirdness of visiting our other daughter and family for the first time, we all had to stay in the garden, and the worst part, it was a very long drive, and there were no toilets open on the way!

At that point my only worry was getting a slot on Tesco! After being a faithful online customer for years I was now having to compete with randoms. Fortunately I had the initiative to email the CEO where a member of his executive quickly got back to me. So I had a named person to deal with. When I explained that I was disabled with no transport they asked me for my log in/customer number and quickly provided me with a premium slot to log in to. Ive never since had any difficulty in getting a slot for the day (if not always the exact time) I wanted.

Apart from this the lock down did not really affect me.

Wyllow3 I felt the same and wondered if it was too strange to say it was a relief being surrounded by others in the same boat.
Fortunately no one in our family became ill or worked in NHS.

I really relished the quietness and traffic free roads and actually we got a pup just before and we were constantly bumping into people with their new pups and everyone admiring them.

It was other worldly and ironically gorgeously sunny too, hardly a plane in the sky, birds singing
The only thing that we couldn’t buy anywhere was liquid soap. Good job I’d got loads already.
Did a fair bit of cooking and baking and reading too.

Marmight

I arrived home from Australia the day before lockdown was announced. Id had to decide whether to stay or leave. Just as well I chose to leave when I did. It was very strange flying via Hong Kong to Heathrow seeing travellers attired in anything from full hazmat suits, plastic macs with hoods up, cowering under umbrellas (!) to those like me brazening it out with fingers crossed. DD met me and I was confined to the back seat with a mask. Once home I went into self imposed isolation for 2 weeks. It was lonely, so quiet but strangely beautiful to watch from my garden, spring slowly develop into early summer. Just observing the daily progress of plants which normally you’d take for granted, listening to the birdsong and the new born lambs in the fields. Out in the country I felt strangely divorced from what was happening in the big wide world and felt very much at peace but was happy when finally allowed to bubble with my local family.

My daughter was due to arrive in Australia on a working visa at the end of March. She had the visa and flights, but with the news unfolding, managed to leave work earlier and arrive just before the borders closed. She is still there, although she came home for a visit last summer, for 2 months.

It was a scary time, with no tests, no masks, and no idea how things would progress.

I was classed as a key worker, as I work alongside the military, so had to carry on as usual. The lack of traffic was lovely.

Just amazed at people's behaviour. The queues, the losing temper in supermarkets because someone had handled a piece of fruit and then replaced it, the masks (aaggghhh), the selfish hoarding, the fear, the hatred towards people who didn't react according to the norm.

I just never understood the fuss. Think I was on the spectrum when it came to Covid.

Catscatscats
I can’t honestly remember any unsociable behaviour, in-fact I think it was an interlude of people behaving very well, showing far more consideration than usual, and being friendlier.

It really did seem a weird time in the beginning. My husband was addicted to watching all the latest news on TV which was scary. My SIL, in her 80s, lived alone and her favourite pastime up until then was shopping with her friends. She became so depressed when the shops shut and her equally ancient friends stayed at home. I did her shopping for her and another in-law who lived close by. I made them meals and delivered them to their front doors. I remember queueing around the supermarket car park and making home made masks for ourselves and the in-laws. I tried to help everybody that I could and still take baked treats for an elderly friend of my husband (in his 90s) who lives alone. He had a deckchair close to his gate so that he could see "real" people. I remember another old man used to walk past with his dog at around dinnertime. He used to peer in which annoyed me until I realised that he was probably just lonely. I began waving to him and he always smiled as he walked past. It was when restrictions began to loosen that things got worse with our extended family and one elderly in law attempted suicide. There was no hospital visiting at the time.

What a extraordinary time it was, so many memories. I remember my friend turning up with a piece of rope two metres long and saying we could go for a walk together if we kept the rope taut between us.
I somehow managed to avoid covid all through that time but it has now caught up with me. I've tested positive for the past week.

My son's marriage had just ended and just when I was desperate to throw my arms round everyone I wasn't allowed. GDs were aged 3 and 8

Looking back they were such strange times

I missed the cuddles with my youngest GD. She was born at the beginning of lockdown and when they were allowed to come to visit us she would cry because she didn’t know us . She will be three soon and is fine with us now and obviously won’t remember her very early years thankfully.

Gosh, that made me think, and then get teary. Three years ago I visited my frail elderly Mum in her nursing home for the last time, after doing the school runs for my two g’dtrs, leaving her in time to collect the girls from school at 3:00. This was my daily routine. Then lockdown came and visitors were banned from the nursing home and my g’dtrs did their learning at home with my son, also working from home. Once the children went back to school my son and dil had got together with other parents to do the school runs to protect us grandparents from Covid. Last year, when Covid was waning and I was about to start visiting Mum again the virus got into the nursing home. Like every other patient on that nursing unit, Mum caught it. She died in Feb 22. I did manage to visit her in hospital before she passed away. Meantime the g’dtrs are suddenly teenagers at secondary school and get themselves there and back independently. I miss my mum, of course but I also miss those couple of hours I had with my g’dtrs after school. Pre Covid my life was busy, my days full. Post Covid things are so much quieter. Change happens. Without Covid it would probably have been this way too, but perhaps it would have seemed more gradual.

It felt surreal, just remember watching the news constantly, then realising that wasn't helping. I ended up watching small bit of news first thing then distract myself with film or box sets till afternoon. Was out in the garden most afternoons. Remember talking to neighbour over the fence most days. Seems longer than 3 years in some way.

I’d retired from my job as a nurse about 12 months prior to the pandemic. I was invited to return to work. My instinct was to return but my DH is an insulin dependent diabetic, asthmatic and over 70 so vulnerable. It was a difficult choice but I couldn’t risk his health. We started watching news only at 6pm. More was too much. It sounds selfish now when so many lost so much. We managed to avoid the dreaded Covid until last week.

I had a cup of coffee on 30 March 2020 when I got up and couldn't taste anything and had had no symptoms prior to this but 3 years on I have my sense of smell back but still can't taste anything except very sweet or salty .
I have got used to it and realise I shouldn't grumble as so many people lost their lives or became really ill but as a keen cook and foodie it really is horrible as I am pretty sure that having had this for 3 years it is not going to get any better.

A week before it became official, I’d messaged my family saying I wasn’t mixing with anyone as I’d read about this new virus and I was so sure something awful was on its way. They all laughed and thought I was being ridiculous and over reacting but I stuck to my plan and within a week they couldn’t believe I was right. I found the whole thing very scary especially the ‘you must stay at home’ it was all very unreal. I feel I lost two years of my grandsons childhood.

I had my own virus....shingles. it started as a pain at the temple on left side then I had a red mark on that eyelid which developed into a group of small blisters. This then travelled over my forehead to the scalp. It was very painful but luckily I got the right treatment very quickly.

Pudding123
I, along with several other people I know caught it in late 2019.
That was before we knew about it, only the Chinese did.
I lost my taste and smell then, it’s still not returned.
I’m used to it now.

Scary times… We were advised to self isolate early as DH is clinically extremely vulnerable. I felt so responsible - I was the only one going out to click and collect and if I felt ill I would self isolate… no tests available then. My best friend was terminally ill and I would never see her again. I put together a folder for our AC in case we died . This made them laugh and cry at the same time.
We started to walk around the park or some country lanes near us and making a flask and banana cakes to enjoy as a treat. We still do this!!

I remember hearing birdsong so clearly and we watched coots nesting and bringing up their young.

I don’t miss the fear and isolation but I miss the clean, quiet air.