Which specific moment from this will stay with you forever?

[RosieLemonade]

Positive or negative.

Breaking the rules & hugging my Mum whilst wearing a mask, at my Dad's funeral.

Picking my son up from school on the last day before they closed for lockdown 1, lots of us in tears, the uncertainty of it, not knowing when we'd be back or what the future would hold. I got sick the next day, which was terrifying for my poor husband.

Reading on here an account from a single mum who had been told by 111 she wouldn't get an ambulance unless her lips were blue and she was losing consciousness.

How lovely it was to have people over in the summer, we had a barbecue and family over, saw my baby great niece a couple of times. That memory is keeping me going now, that summer will come and we'll be able to meet up again.

Wandering through Sainsbury's last March, staring in shock at aisle after aisle of empty shelves. I met another shopper's eye and we just shared a moment of disbelief that this was happening.

Cancelling our wedding with three days to go, then standing on a muddy, windy hillside that Saturday, trying to fly a kite with DP and the DC and thinking, 'I should be walking up the aisle now'.

The following day, a Sunday evening, shaking as I set up the dining room table for homeschooling the next day, wondering how I was going to do this.

Nothing much as this has not affected my daily life other than having to wear masks and it being able to travel or go to the pub .

Nobody I know has died or even been ill with covid. I don't have school age children or parents in care homes.

For me, reading about the three wise men protocol, which meant that - if hospitals became full - people like me may not get treatment.

I've been through so much with my health in the last few years, but I have never been so abjectly afraid as I was then.

We had year 11 in for results day, all outside, beautiful day. It was so good to see them, lovely day.

Boris's speech where he said that many of us would lose loved ones. Sadly, we did, and a significant proportion of our friends have too.

Walking through town just after first lockdown. It was surreal. The streets were totally deserted, and the few people I did see looked shell-shocked. There was a big sign in the theatre saying 'the show will go on' and it made me want to cry. We've gotten so use to what we've lost that it doesn't have an impact anymore. Don't get me wrong, I do think lockdown was the right course of action but, like everyone else, I am so hoping that it goes right this time and we can get back to normal.

Being rolled into A&E on a wheelchair with covid after 10 days high temp and sudden worsening of shortness of breath and turning back to see my fiancé in tears with fear and worry going back to the car

As a HCP having my first vaccine on my birthday. So much hope.
Really emotional.

Sitting in bed with my baby who was 12 hours old, watching Boris on the telly announce the lockdown and realising I wouldn't be able to see my family for weeks.

Seeing my parents again in May for the first time (against the rules)

When they told us at 8PM on a sunday night to stay at home, but go to work, but not on a bus, but on a bus if necessary, and do it tomorrow.

DH works in peoples houses, about 5 a day, no PPE except a mask. I was 6 months pregnant. I barely slept that night not knowing what the morning would bring.

It was watching the sunset and breathing the cool evening air with mine, on one last free walk right before that 8pm "you must stay at home" broadcast.

I understood this would be years rather than weeks and it felt like one very profound last moment of true freedom to roam, for a long, long time to come.

I can still remember the air and the light of that walk.

Being on the surgeons table alone whilst having a caesarean because the hospital wouldn’t let DH wait with me before hand and then when it was time they didn’t tell me with enough time for him to get there.

They put the most restrictive face mask on me and I wasn’t allowed my glasses and i was uncontrollably crying and I just remember them asking me if I was ok but I couldn’t speak I felt like I was drowning under 10000 tears and a face full of snot

Driving with incredibly short notice to pick ds up from university. Just a few lorries and a couple of police cars on the roads. Having ti have a wee on a darkened roadside . The relief when we get home was enormous.

*Meant to say pick him up from university at start of lockdown

Two things.

First one was when our office receptionist and personal assistant had a screaming match about how dangerous Covid was right at the beginning and even though they were both saying the same thing in slightly different ways they almost came to blows. It was so bizarre.

The second thing was when the first lockdown was announced and we were all clearing our filings cabinets of the important files we needed to take home and I forgot my office plant and had to go back and walked into an office like a ghost town.

Both things were so surreal it did not seem real. like an apocolypse movie.

Oh, and BJ announcing a lockdown when I was 39 weeks pregnant. I gave birth on the day lockdown #2 started. I cried a lot that week.

The first "you must stay home" message.
Rubbing my mums arm at her dad's funeral, as close as I dared get.

Doing the Thursday clap (when it felt like a good idea, at the beginning) and my neighbour playing 'Over the Rainbow' on the oboe. Cried.

Collecting my 5 yo from school on the last day, avoid eye contact with other parents as I was going to cry.

Explaining to DS aged 5 on the Monday that I really meant he could go to school. Trying not to cry and him putting his hands over my eyes to stop the tears.

Once so restrictions had been lifted in May 2020 going to the beach in the lovely weather and just playing for hours with the DCs.

Meeting up with my team in the park in the summer for a picnic then going to a museum. Was just so nice to see everyone!

DS playing in a friends garden after school returned in the summer (he was reception) and me and the friends mum drank a whole bottle of Prosecco - we were so pleased they were in school!

I had a complete breakdown on 18th March when Gavin Williamson announced that vulnerable children including children with EHCP ( DD has EHCP) were expected to come to school. I was really worried by that time and planned to take her out of school next Monday. Then the clarification came that it’s a choice for parents.
I remember taking her from school with all her things on Thursday and the feeling of relief. We came home and I cried. I was very scared in February and March mostly because I felt that people were not taking it seriously.

Bad = watching Boris announce the first lockdown.

Good = getting pregnant with my daughter who is due in April

I like this thread. Not because of what people are writing, but because it's history. In years to come these will be the memories that we keep & tell our children. Often when things like this happen (probably because I'm a history graduate!) I think this... Like even though it's MN these are people's memories.

I feel that this should maybe go in MN classics so it's kept.

Negative - My Mum was admitted to hospital the day 1st lockdown began, watching her walk through A&E doors alone and not being able to go with her was both worrying and upsetting.
Positive - Standing beside my Dad while he spoke on the phone and waved to my Mum 3 weeks later. She was standing at a hospital window helped by 2 kind nurses.

the first week of clapping, about 100 houses must have taken part around the green where I live, and from one there was a live band playing music and emotional electric guitar solos. made me cry but it felt like such a significant and loving moment. I'm not usually soft!