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Original poster

Which specific moment from this will stay with you forever?

999 replies

RosieLemonade · 13/02/2021 15:18

Positive or negative.

OP posts:
unmumsymummy21 · 13/02/2021 15:19

At the beginning of it all, that map they used to show of the whole of Europe and how many cases each country had. It was this very dark red / purple colour and it was absolutely terrifying.

lightand · 13/02/2021 15:21

Many months laying in bed with long covid.

Tyranttoddler · 13/02/2021 15:23

When they closed the schools last March and by the Friday of the closure there were very few children left in our large secondary school. We walked them to the gates when the bell went and I didn't see most of them again, as I got a new job for the September. I cried that day; things seemed much more scary and unknown back then.

Also last week I went for a walk with my mum and saw her across the street. I waved, ran across and nearly hugged her. Oooh I'd love to give her a hug!!

herecomesthsun · 13/02/2021 15:23

How very happy my son was with his homemade lockdown birthday cake.

MiddleParking · 13/02/2021 15:24

The worst, most anxiety-inducing bit for me was the empty supermarket shelves right at the start.

LizzieSiddal · 13/02/2021 15:24

My DD having a baby, she had a bad time; not being able to go and visit in hospital and hug her, will stay with me forever.

sadpapercourtesan · 13/02/2021 15:25

When I walked to town at the very start of the first proper lockdown to try and get a thermometer (DS1 was ill). It felt like full zombie apocalypse, very few people around and everyone really freaked out and avoiding each other. I stood in a line outside Boots and a woman coughed, everyone scattered like beetles. Horrible.

OpheliasCrayon · 13/02/2021 15:26

Weirdly, lying in hospital in December 2019 with a flare of my chronic illness (I say weirdly as I'm in hospital again for the same thing as I write this )... And seeing on the bbc a report of a virus in Wuhan. I heard a few of the nurses mention it when I was there (as in just that they'd read about it in the news) and it was pretty much being brushed off as not something that was ever going to affect us in England. I remember texting my husband about it as well while I was there.

Seems a world away then, to me being in the same situation now in hospital during the second wave of the pandemic and just how monumentally wrong the thoughts were that it was never going to come to England and everything was going to be fine....

The other thing that will stick with me is the first morning of home school in the first lockdown, having to explain to my daughter she wasn't going to school, and just feeling completely overwhelmed and just straight out weird by the whole situation as I dutifully logged into Joe Wickes..... Just this feeling of how on earth am I going to do this with two young kids....

EssentialHummus · 13/02/2021 15:27

Going for a hospital scan on my own and seeing two midwives kitted out in full ppe. It wasn’t good news.

SingToTheSky · 13/02/2021 15:27

Boris’ announcement right back in the beginning where he said we would lose loved ones before their time. I’d been getting worried for a while before this, but I had just started getting symptoms too IIRC, and this just absolutely terrified me. I don’t even feel that scared now, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget how that sudden rush of fear I felt when hearing it.

There have certainly been positive moments too, but I can’t think of any specifics really.

SuperbGorgonzola · 13/02/2021 15:27

The Queen saying "we will meet again".

Having to stand on the pavement outside hospital in labour, freezing having severe contractions leaning against a bollard, and not being allowed in until a midwife made her way from Maternity, had me put on a mask and walk alone with her to the labour ward.

Ffsffsffsffsffs · 13/02/2021 15:27

Saying goodbye to my y11 students on 20th March. Some of them hadn't even realised their exams had been cancelled, and that day was likely to be their last at school, ever. So many tears that afternoon.

AlohaMolly · 13/02/2021 15:31

Two moments stick in my mind on a personal level.

The first was when Boris announced that there would be a lockdown for the first time, back in March. We have a smart tv and very rarely watch live tv. So many people were watching that iplayer couldn’t cope and kept freezing and then just died.

I’d been reading on the mumsnet prepping boards for about six weeks prior to that about covid and had been putting bits aside and talking about it with my friends (covid in general) and family and been told by everyone (including my therapist!) that I was neurotic. I was over anxious, yes, but the building feeing of that sick anticipation was so overwhelming that I actually felt something akin to relief when we finally went into lockdown. It wasnt relief but I can’t think of the right word.

The second time was 4th jan this year. Our county in wales had emailed once before and once after Christmas to say schools were definitely opening. DS 4.5 was so excited to go back. We went on a long walk a little way up snowdon (we live locally) and were chatting about it when I got an email at about 3.30 to say that school was closed. I remember looking out at the view and back at DS and having a bit of a cry to myself because it felt so overwhelming, like we’d been through so much already and just when you think you can rely on something, it was ripped away again.

WithIcePlease · 13/02/2021 15:31

On a travelator in massive Sainsbury's just after face masks had come in. Peak shopping time of Saturday morning. Empty stores and DH and I were the only people in a massive next. I just wondered at that moment how on earth we and the economy were going to get out of this

Toilenstripes · 13/02/2021 15:34

When my Fil died early on and when I made the decision to use my lockdown time to retrain for my career.

Chosennone · 13/02/2021 15:38

Weirdly when Coronation St and Emmerdale announced they were rationing episodes and they had only enough to get us to summer Blush small world problem, I know, but I find them such a reassuring part of normal life it really worried me!

Positive. Having a few days at the seaside with family. Running into the sea and laughing with tears in our eyes! Then enjoying EOTHO and thinking we'd come through the worst!

unmumsymummy21 · 13/02/2021 15:38

Also- watching it unfold in Italy and people around me calling me hysterical when I said it WILL happen here in a few weeks time. My DH just never believed it would come to us too. Sorry, what's so different about Italy ?? It came and it came even worse.

JuniLoolaPalooza · 13/02/2021 15:40

I was very ill with a bad cold/virus at the end of January 2020 and I clearly remember 'joking' (feel a right prat now) in the office and saying 'I've had this, come get me coronavirus'. Little did we know.

A positive one is a sunny afternoon in the park with the kids, playground locked so they were clambering around on a wooden sculpture. I appreciated having that time with them with no pressures.

Finally, the sheer stress I felt on Jan 3rd this year about the schools going back or not and not knowing what to do for the best, just before they announced the lockdown.

Shelovesamystery · 13/02/2021 15:42

When Rishi announced furlough.

DH and I both work in a restaurant and it was so bloody scary at the start. First Boris announced that everyone had to stay home, and then the restaurant was so quiet. We were all scared that they would just refuse to close hospitality and the restaurant would just go under. Then they announced that everything had to close, which was sort of a relief, but no word of financial support. We spent those few days frantically figuring out how we were going to pay our bills and whether we could get jobs working for amazon and whether our shifts could work around each other for childcare. Then I can remember me and DH sat in our living room watching Rishi announce the furlough scheme and I burst into tears and we just hugged. I have never felt relief like that in my life.

That period of time between Boris telling everyone to stay home and Rishi announcing furlough was such an emotional roller-coaster for us. I feel a bit wobbly just thinking about it actually.

Donoteatthekittens · 13/02/2021 15:43

The Mumsmet hysteria - granny killers, sobbing and shaking, going to the supermarket to buy an Easter egg is murder, put cheese in your coffee.

brokengate · 13/02/2021 15:44

Had baby by elective section 18 December. Kept in weekend in side room.

Everyone was worried about Christmas and the staff were anxious.

Saturday afternoon I snuggled in with baby and turned phone off so had shut the world out.

I was only one on ward and the midwifes came in at 530 with tea and cakes and asked if we could watch the emergency press conference together. (Scotland).

They cried, I cried, but that feeling of safety in my little room combined with the raw fear of those midwifes will stay with me forever.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 13/02/2021 15:44

Sitting down to write to my MP and using photos of Dominic Cummings' face as he was leaving the Rose Garden, and the coffin of the 13 year old boy who died alone, being lowered into a grave by people in hazmat gear. One of them wanted childcare, the other hadn't been able to have his mum or dad with him when he died. They weren't even able to go to his funeral.

Florelei · 13/02/2021 15:44

Two things stick in my mind.

First, the horrible scenes coming out of the Italian ICUs in March showing people lying on their fronts.

Second going into Sainsbury’s on my way into work to get my usual sandwich. Normally it was fairly empty at that time of day - that day in mid March out was absolutely heaving with people buying loads of stuff.

OnlyTeaForMe · 13/02/2021 15:45

@Ffsffsffsffsffs

Saying goodbye to my y11 students on 20th March. Some of them hadn't even realised their exams had been cancelled, and that day was likely to be their last at school, ever. So many tears that afternoon.
Yes, similar for me, except from a parent's POV.

DS (upper sixth) had a drama exam that afternoon and ended up being at school until 7pm. Also hadn't seen any of his friends all day as had been in a separate building.
He came home saying his friends were messaging him that school was closed from Monday.
He had so many questions about exams etc that I couldn't answer at that point and I felt so Sad for him and his A level friends, as I guessed they wouldn't ever go back, and that would have been his last day.

lifeonhardmodept2 · 13/02/2021 15:45

Italians singing from the balconies.

Also, the day before schools closed, I could hear the children in the school playground. I took an extra minute to listen.