These last 10 months have made me think a lot about WWII. Both my parents were born in the mid-1930s. My father’s father was killed just before the end of the war (he was quite high up in the Army and travelling to the 1944 peace conference ironically).
So my father’s life was changed completely at the age of 11.
My mother remembers rationing and always being just slightly hungry. Butter was a complete luxury, and new clothes planned carefully, remade and repurposed from older siblings.
At the moment, here in the UK, we have MORE than enough to eat - except for the shamefulness of people in poverty (our national shame, not theirs).
We can order new cloth3s, new shoes, whatever we want, really and it’ll be delivered.
We are all living I under threat of a silent invisible killer, but we have the NHS.
I know, in my family, the effect of WWII down the generations. Five years of constant threat, fear, and privation. Loss of parents - I never met one of my grandfathers, and my other grandfather had survived both wars, in active combat both times.
And that’s before I start thinking about my sister's mother-in-law, who is a survivor of Dachau ....
It’s worth trying to have some perspective on our present times.
Our current situation pales in comparison.