Covid - about 5 years ago. Does it seem like 5 years?

[cakeorwine]

So it was all happening about 5 years ago. The signs were about to come through from Italy.

It doesn't seem like 5 years ago. But maybe for some people, it does.

It seems a bit more recent - 5 years seems like a long time.

But then again, so much has happened since then.

It was a very tough, very odd but interesting time - I worked in a school throughout looking after the children of keyworkers. I remember being cross that I was not prioritised for the vaccine, despite mixing with children all day. Then restrictions lifted and it was almost like nothing had happened.

My last baby was born at home in May 2020 so we remember it well. I still feel cheated but know that's selfish!

I remember working through it in a school, we had the key worker students in. They all had to sit apart, and we had to clean desks constantly. Then they had separate breaks and lunch times, and staggered starts and finishes.
Then I’d get home, straight away shower, wash my work clothes.
Then sit down and watch the daily briefing, all those charts and statistics.
Then do a test every morning before going back to work and doing it all again.
And I had it easy, my dd was in her final year training as an ICU nurse. In at the deep end, bless her.

This sums it up perfectly for me!

I worked as a nurse on a mental health ward throughout, it was scary times! But we were lucky and didn’t actually get covid on our ward for many months. We all felt like it was lurking around every corner in the early days though, it was very worrying! It impacted the care we provided so much though, it was awful for patients, relatives and staff.

I wasn't surprised that it happened, had studied zoology, zoonotic disease and pandemics at college. I worked outside the home throughout, but I've forgotten big chunks of time.

Because it forever screwed over daily life. Decades of daily office working banished to history and many stuck at home all day every day, or 3 days per week.

Mumsnet was mad at the time, it brought out the very best and the very worst in people.
I remember people arguing on here about whether it was ok to buy chocolate at the supermarket or if you had to stick to just essentials.

I started a new job, signed the contract in Feb and started at the end of March. Didn't make it into the office, or do any actual meaningful work for about a year. Sat at my kitchen table with my laptop for the first few weeks and then realised that my new employer wasn't set up for home working so I made the most of the garden. All my colleagues did the same.

I remember it being a really lovely summer, weather wise, in 2020.

I don’t remember getting a letter from Boris, strange what you forget.

I’ll never forget. DS was conceived at the very start of lockdown.

Scans alone, masked hospital appointments, labour alone, sat at home with a newborn while DH rumbled on in work meetings, then when baby classes did start up masked up and sat on a mat socially distanced from the other mums … it wasn’t much fun

DDs pregnancy, birth and maternity leave were so much nicer.

This thread made me mention this to my daughter who was 6 when covid hit. She reminded me that she wrote a 'death list' of people in our family so she could keep track of who died... Luckily she never had to tick anyone off. We found it quite cute and amusing at the time which is testament to how bizarre everything was then.

I remember it being a really lovely summer, weather wise, in 2020

It was an absolutely glorious April and May. Boiling, day after day.

I was WFH but dh was off and spent every single day mainly in the garden with the 3 dc. The four of them looked like they'd been abroad after a few weeks 😂

It feels so strange looking back and because we weren't able to do much it was difficult to track the passing of time. We decided to welcome a shiny new decade by getting married. The lovely springtime wedding was cancelled and we managed to get it rebooked for end of October just four days before the next lockdown. Fifteen attendees max, guests in masks as we took our vows and split onto three separate tables for our reception. Our guests loved it though as it was this first time they had the opportunity to dress up and go out in months.

I work in care it was awful. Prior to this I never felt scared when we had a new person admitted from hospital- we had 15 hospital discharge beds that people came to while care package got sorted etc, never had so many long term residents pass away. Felt scared going to work, lack of ppe etc, not knowing what I was bring home to do and kids. Then I had to sit online in teams meeting and social worker said how bad it was for them having to stay at home, could only go to their garden or stand in the priority queue at Tesco. They never mentioned how bad it was for then after I said well I don’t know if I’m taking something home that will kill off my family. It was my worst time ever in care… possibly till now we are seeing an awful lot of flu/chest infections/colds it reminds me of back then, have had 3 residents (first one came from hospital and gave it to staff who gave it to long term clients) die sine 25th December.

It was a terrible time. Doesn't seem like 5 years to me. I was in the pub with my best friend of 43 years, when we heard we were going into lockdown.

We both lived alone so formed our own bubble. We did lots of things together. We went for walks, did gardening and anything else we were allowed to do. We thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful weather in the summer of 2020. In early summer 2021 he became ill and died in November that year. (Pancreatic cancer).
It broke my heart. But I was thankful that we had that time together and I was able to care for him. So when I look back to 2020 I remember the happy times we had. It also changed my priorities in life.

My DH died on 1st Feb 2000, just as covid was starting, so that whole period was a blur. We got the funeral one before the first kickdown and I had a brief period of precious support from loved ones, and then ... bang .... no one allowed near me. I could not support other family members. It could not have happened at a worse time. I really would not want to live through that time again.

Lock down...

It was awful.

I have a LOT of unresolved trauma and I had a very quiet breakdown. Ruined my marriage.

I will carry the regret until I die.

I'm so sorry. I also had a difficult personal situation during the span of the pandemic and I find it incredibly difficult for people to discuss how they loved it, wished it would happen again etc. It was a dark, dark time for many.

I hope you find peace with what you experienced, and that you're in a better place now x

What is really nice, 5 years on, is that I'm also beginning to feel like I've really shaken off some of the trauma and shitty memories from that period. My marriage collapsed spectacularly. That wasn't a bad thing at all for me, personally. My brother died 5 days after receiving the first round of his Moderna jab (in the States); abdominal aortic aneurysm. I'll never get over his loss.
Though, these days, I do feel like I have a good arsenal of memories now made in the post covid period of our living. People behave pretty normally now. It took a while to shake off the social awkwardness we'd collectively developed. Covid isn't attached to my recent memories and I love that. God damn, it was so depressing. The one thing that whole period has done is however, is filled me with a permanent sense of gloom (not doom- I won't give the assholes that much power) regarding our global leaders. I can't unsee the reality that the world really and truly is ruled by psychopaths. I'd known this. But Covid made me feel and live out this reality. My trust in humanity is forever altered.
The downside of coming out of the period is that we went straight back into bombings and war after a period of enforced peace. That was one upside of Covid. No bombs. A lot of death. But no war.

I volunteered in the vaccine clinic every weekend between January-July 2021. I am still friends with the man I was on the reception desk with.

I used to have dinner with my gran every Saturday night as she was in our ‘bubble’ and she would tell me she was proud of me ‘for being part of the solution’. She has since died, and I will always remember that.

It was a very strange time. I also think it feels like a lifetime ago, but also yesterday.
I was in hospital a week before the country locked down the first time and the nurses were all laughing themselves silly saying that people were overreacting and that all the nurses on the ward “had covid the previous year, it’s just a cold etc”. They were laughing as the news reports were on the ward tv and said ‘well we are nurses and none of us are worried. People are idiots’ etc. I always wonder what those nurses thought when the pandemic really got going. They didn’t see what was to come at all.

Because it wasn't just a one off. It was over two years plus. And some people are still dealing with long Covid. So no it feels more recent - because it was!

@DazedAndConfused321 thank you for your kind words and I hope you have come out of it for the better. Like you I find it hard to hear people talking about the good times spent with their DHs and DCs in the garden and days spent making and baking. The Covid years were so tough and traumatic.

I am in a better place now but my life is completely unrecognisable from pre covid times. At times I think my life before was just a dream, and what if we were all just reset into a different life. I try not to think about this too much obvs as it sounds mad.

It seems a long time since I was literally scared to drive 12 minutes down the road to look after my disabled Dad. I remember looking in the rear mirror and wondering if I would be caught by the police. It was so strange that it feels a lifetime ago.

Two years ripped out of life by the time restrictions ended and additional rules finally got dropped.

The DCs' school was very slow to resume normality.

We're now past 5 years since we last saw MiL. She's only been dead 2 and a bit years, but travel restrictions and care home restrictions ended too late for the practical logistics of taking the DCs to see her- by the time that eased up, she wouldn't have known who the DCs were and it would have done them more harm than good. We tried in 2021, but only DH was allowed to see her. It was the week after international travel opened back up again. At least she got a proper funeral though and was spared those inhuman, cruel rules that so many bereaved people were forced to suffer.

DS2 didn't really get his spark back until he was in y6... he was in y2 when the school year ended in the March. It was a very slow healing process.
Early 2021 was the worst part. The daily sobbing into my lap as he was goaded by the sight of half the class during online lessons, but not able to interact with them. We could hear the other half at break/ lunchtime on the school fields just to rub it in some more. He only had chance to legally play with other children for a few months out of the year that he was 7. Children were treated abysmally. The government cared more about pubs than meeting children's needs to meet, play and develop.

DS2 is a lucky one, he's finally recovered to where he should have been. So many children/ young people have had their opportunities ruined permanently because no one has the resources to meet their needs.