Which specific moment from this will stay with you forever?

[RosieLemonade]

Positive or negative.

Negative

Popping down to the canteen for break at work. I was standing at the toaster and some stranger stopped to tell me that the schools were closing. A few minutes later Leo (our Taoiseach) gave his speech from Washington, announcing the closure of all schools, colleges and childcare facilities. There was a deathly silence as everyone in the canteen gathered around the TV to watch the speech. It felt like the world was ending.

Watching the news from Italy as they showed a convoy of trucks full of bodies driving out of the city (Bergamo?) - feeling sick as the scale of what was unfolding really hit me.

Calling over to see my Dad (in his back garden) - sitting on the end of his garden bench, terrified if he made the slightest move towards me in case I might inadvertently infect him, even though we were outdoors. Not knowing if I would ever see him again.

Positive

News coverage of the Irish doctors and nurses who were working overseas coming home to 'answer Ireland's call' and help out in our time of need. That brought tears to my eyes.

St. Patrick's Day - people posting DIY parades featuring assorted family members and the family dog parading around their garden.

The Late Late Toy Show and the amazing children they featured - a special mention for little Adam King and his virtual hug. The charity appeal raised the staggering sum of €6.2 m.

The feeling of relief when I first took my children out of school 5 days before the first lockdown.

The fear and anger at my husband being threatened with disciplinary action for wearing a mask at work-on a hospital ward. He was berated for scaremongering, this was the week of schools closing.

The sadness that we have lost so many people, including three previously healthy school parents in their 40's.

Every single thing in my birth plan being cancelled, travelling for an hour in labour and then having to introduce my new baby boy to my parents via Skype. They didn't meet him until he was almost 3 months old. He's their only grandchild, and I very much doubt there will be any others

On the up side, months of avoiding being ambushed by the outlaws so I could get to grips with being a new mum.

The weird things like park benches being taped off like a police crime scene, being only allowed to travel a certain distance for a walk, having to keep on the move when out walking. Only being allowed out once a day but it doesn't matter how long for as long as you only leave your house once. Who thinks up these things.

Great thread, def should be kept, this is our collective memory here. I ran 21 miles along The Ridgeway on March 22nd knowing it would be a long time before I would again, I hugged a tree and promised to be back. It felt so strange. My son's last day in yr 13, so surreal, saying goodbye to his science teacher knowing A levels were cancelled and sobbing as we drove off with my son comforting ME! Glued to the news for hours on end every day, numb and so scared.

Running all through that stunning weather and seeing rainbows and signs for the NHS everywhere will stay in my mind forever.

Not being able to have my 87 year old Dad over for Christmas, he was on his own for the first time ever. Worried to death constantly about my sister who is a nurse on Covid wards. 19th Dec when Boris made the Christmas announcement, I was running in the dark with my friend and we just stood in the dark in a country lane watching on her phone. It all felt so bleak.

My sister and Dad being vaccinated has made me unbelievably happy, every person vaccinated feels hugely positive.

Worst/most memorable moments for me in Lockdown 1 were:

DS1 and DS2’s school closing. Realising that DS1 wasn’t going to sit his GCSEs or go back for his prom or end of school celebrations. Speaking about the possibility of this only a few days before with friends and saying it would never happen.

Refusing to stockpile food, being told to get some extra in by parents and ignoring them. Going out by myself to 3 different supermarkets when I realised the shelves were bare so as not to upset DSs. Being extremely worried about not being able to buy carbs anywhere and ordering a huge expensive bag of rice from Amazon.

Feeling like a caged rat. Walking up and down my small garden for an hour at a time listening to podcasts pretending I was properly outside.

My self employed work completely stopping. Being terrified of having no money and huge relief when the self employed grant was announced.

Listening terrified to the daily briefing everyday on LBC at 5pm.

Best moments:

Lockdown walk, the relief of being outside and how nice it was to look in peoples house/driveways with drawings and rainbows. Someone also put a quiz in their front garden every day.

Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 with DS2 every day (I normally never played on PS4)

When we were allowed after LD1 an amazing day to the seaside in the sunshine, we felt so free.

The last few days at work where everything had gone eerily quiet, we were all just sitting about wondering what was going to happen.

Walking to the chemist and realising I was the only person around, no cars on the road, no traffic noise.

Sat sobbing after my daughter had a breakdown at the sudden end to 12 years of school life with no exams or leavers parties or prom. She really did think it was the end of her life and I had just done some whole speech to her putting a huge positive spin on it all that I didn't actually believe. She left and all the scariness of the situation and the magnitude of what was happening came spilling out.

I spent the first 2 weeks of lockdown terrified as DS2 was ill with a high temp but we couldn't test him. I was convinced we would all have it and after seeing the scary videos coming in from Italy I was so scared. I was expected to homeschool my 4 kids and the work was just chucked out and I was completely overwhelmed.

Positive stuff will be our Christmas. It is usually such a busy time with family and events which I do love but it was nice for a change not to have to do all that and just to have the 6 of us.

Can I have 2?

Positive:
My lovely cousin (who's more like a sister) had her rainbow baby in November, almost a year after I had my DD.
While I'm sad we have barely seen each other, I'm so glad that we are both finally mothers and our children will get to grow up together

Negative:
MIL had a seizure in November and was taken to hospital. Diagnosed with encephalitis, causing memory loss and then diagnosed (following a scan) with terminal lung cancer.
Due to the memory loss, she is unaware of the cancer.

@MiddleParking

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

Yes. On Friday 20th March, DH and I popped into Waitrose on our way home from work for some dinner and the shelves had been stripped bare. I felt sick.

Also watching the opening of the Eurovision programme showing the empty streets of European capitals, some of my favourite places, and crying for the whole duration of the show.

On a positive note, I switched from 5Live (harbingers of doom) to Radio 2 and discovering Dua Lipa.

First one was nipping into a Chinese takeaway beginning of March last year to be told that they were closed from Monday, thinking they were over reacting!
My dear mum being taken ill and dying whilst locked away in a home, we had her last few months stolen from us and I’m so sad that we never had chance to spend that time together.

When I got my results and it said positive! And that was truly a negative, since I had had my elderly mother age 85 in the car with me the day before whilst I took her for her Covid vaccination. Oh the irony.

I would have been at my most contagious

Thank god of all gods that we were both double masked because she was sat next to me in the car, the heating was on full and all the windows closed.

I spent the next 7 days in a state of severe anxiety whilst I hoped she hadn’t caught it from me.

Being told at 4 months pregnant with hypermesis i couldn't buy more than 3 1L bottles of tonic water in the 5th shop i'd been into to buy it. Sounds a bit dramatic until you realise thats all i could drink for 9 months and as i had run out i hadnt kept anything down all day. Full blown meltdown in Lidl, they went and got the manager, calmed me down and let me by the 14 that i'd wanted, one a day for the next two weeks as per my normal shopping frequency

One of DH’s apprentices describing to him taking their baby into hospital and seeing armed police (NW England). Helping same apprentice source formula.

Driving into work with my “critical worker” letter and ID on my passenger seat for when I crossed the border into the next county.

Ringing shielders and having to make an 80-odd year old promise not to climb a tree to take a bit off the top of one that was annoying him.

Knowing DD wouldn’t see her two Bffs for a while as they had to shield.

Saying to DD that it’s good to be cautious and sure schools will close for a bit but I was sure a few weeks off at Easter will get this all under control. How little I knew eh?

Realising how small my child’s world has become - DD is 12 and excited when she’s allowed to come to the fruit and veg shop with me (can’t carry it all myself). On the same subject - rediscovering local shops.

The way our kids have been shit on by unions and the government and employers.

Surreal: leaving on a course in my city centre a few days before lockdown and being practically the only person in the shops, apart from groups of students sitting around looking bewildered.

Worrying: Boris being admitted to hospital with Covid and me getting up early next day expecting to find he'd died overnight (apparently he came pretty close).

Positive: reading, watching loads of telly, taking an interest in things I'd never had time for before. Discovering new music.

Finding out my mum's cancer has come back and not knowing when I'll be able to see her as she's not in the UK last week had to be the final straw in what has been a truly terrible time. I just stepped outside and shouted into the trees (don't worry my neighbours are fine), but I will never forget that flood of sheer frustration, anger, misery and fear

This street is usually mobbed
Empty

For me, I remember sitting in the kitchen with my husband watching the tv and seeing Boris Johnson say that many people would lose their loved ones. We just looked at each other. I also remember the moment ringing my Mum to tell her that that our business was closing (and still hasn't started again) and she cried. I remember the email we got from the Head teacher who couldn't take all the yr6's back in June last year. It was such a heartfelt email of sadness that many of the yr6s had had their last day without realising it. It was an email she never would have thought she would have to write and it brought tears to my eyes.

In the summer I went with my family to see my brother and I wanted to hug him and never let him go. Never felt like that about my brother before!

Late January 2020: My boss, who is Chinese, refreshing the news constantly about the virus in China..whilst also saying that if the virus came to the UK, the British Government would deal with it swiftly and it wouldn't become an issue..

The poor 13 year old boy who died alone, that was just horrendous

The day I stopped at the Boots near my office on the way to work and they were rationing hand sanitiser as people were bulk buying the little handbag sized bottles. That was in February 2020.

In late Feb last year when I felt like I was losing the plot because not one person I knew was taking the threat of this seriously. That was a scary time. I honestly thought there was something wrong with me because everyone else didn’t seem to give a shit.
I pulled my DC out of school a week before they closed, I’ll never forget that (I lied and said they had a cough, they didn’t).
Hearing that schools were closing.
I’ll never ever forget when the play park near us reopened in July having been taped off and cable tied since March. My children were so happy. I cried in the park watching them. If they closed the parks again I would just lift them over the fence now tbh 🤷🏼‍♀️ but that was a magic moment.
The moments I heard about people I know dying. A couple of COVID and a couple of suicide.
The moment the tiers were announced. My area has been shit and so restricted.

Lots of things, but if I can only have one, walking the dogs about a week after the first lockdown across the completely empty road into the park and realising how fresh and clear the air was with no traffic and how clear the sky was.

Saying to my friend in February that I thought we should hold off booking our joint 50th trip to Europe in June as 'I have a feeling this is going to get bad' and her looking at me as if I'd lost the plot.