Which specific moment from this will stay with you forever?

[RosieLemonade]

Positive or negative.

The shock and disbelief of being woken in September to be told that my 20 year old son had taken his own life.
He was about to start his third year at university and no-one knew anything was wrong. He obviously had undiagnosed depression, but it was exacerbated by unnatural months of lockdown.
I will never be the same.

Oh my @SausageCrush that’s an indescribable pain. I’m so sorry

Standing in the middle of the supermarket madness at the start, gazing at the empty rows of shelves. An older lady and I just stopped and looked at each other and said to each other that it was madness.

Seeing a lady with a mask on in public for the first time. It was so alien, face masks didn't belong in my little town.

When I knew Boris was doing his lockdown announcement thanks to MN so I went out and got enough shopping for two weeks just before hand. The McDonald's beside Asda was closing that night at 7pm for an unknown period of time. It was so odd. I thought that shop would see me through Covid.

A family member (older and with a higher BMI) who works in a hospital calling to our house and when he left I cried my eyes out thinking we might never see him again. (We did, he's had his two jabs!)

Sausage I’m so very sorry

SausageCrush I have no words but huge amounts of love to you and your family

@SingToTheSky

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.

The same moment for me. My parents were on their weekly visit here and I remember coming home from work and hugging them goodbye as they left. I hugged them so tightly as I knew they wouldn't be coming for a while and I was terrified I'd never see them alive again.

@SausageCrush

The shock and disbelief of being woken in September to be told that my 20 year old son had taken his own life. He was about to start his third year at university and no-one knew anything was wrong. He obviously had undiagnosed depression, but it was exacerbated by unnatural months of lockdown. I will never be the same.

1. When a lot of Chinese tourists started to arrive on island I was on on holiday in January and island manager saying this was very unusual.
2. Dp saying (march 16) that the lockdown would surely be for months not weeks. I burst into tears !
3. April (or was it May) - days when death figure was around 800 for first time. Shocking.
4. Brief window when stages opened watching live streamed ballet with distanced audience and dancers in stage. Burst into tears. Miss live stuff of all sorts so much.
5. Seeing sibling with cancer for 15 mins - outside but not able to hold them and hug them.
6. Dealing with horse emergency which ended up with around 15 of us Sime helping firefighters etc. All in close proximity working really hard to help under vet instructions. In the midst someone said ‘well so much for Covid’. We’d all forgotten. We all laughed hysterically. Was good to have felt normal even though was shocking we’d been breathing all over each other in the emergency.
7. First you tube funeral. Really hard seeing bereaved friend and not being there fir her but watching in a screen.

Not being allowed funeral cars for my Dad's funeral and having to follow the hearse in my own car

For me, the first time I tried to do a food shop but was terrified at the thought. Not because I was scared of catching Covid - I wasn’t - because of how different it would be. I remember circling our local retail park feeling afraid to park up and walk in to any of the supermarkets.

But in the end, I put my big girl pants on and decided to treat us to an M&S food shop and felt so happy when I returned home with my ‘haul’

Lying in bed one night in early April trying to breathe. As a lone parent, hoping that I had enough food in the house for my son if I did not wake up in the morning.

Being at work (care home) back in May last year and walking down the corridor listening to the coughs of the residents behind their closed doors.
It was eerie.
That day, I just knew what was coming.

I have a few.

Seeing the news early 2020 about what was going on in China. I remember sitting in my mum and dad's living room and saying how worried I was and being told I was worrying for no reason (in their defence I do have form!)

When Boris announced the first lockdown. Having worried about it for longer than the average person I cheered and shouted something along the lines of "thank fuck for that!"

I will remember just how well my 8 year old only child has dealt with home learning and being away from his school friends. I am ridiculously proud of him.

I remember that when lockdown was announced I thought that there was no way my relationship would survive it. We seem to have managed.

I'll remember the good times we had in the summer when restrictions were eased. Wild water swimming with my parents and my little boy.

My birthday with a takeaway in my parents garden. It was one of the best birthdays I've ever had. I think we just appreciated each other more.

Christmas. We managed to escape tier 4 and really made the most of that one day of being together as a family. No regrets.

I will also remember the insanity of mumsnet...

If you sit on a bench during your walk you are a murderer (I actually believed this shit and didn't sit on a bench for months 😅)

You are only allowed out for an hour a day. ONCE

Put cheese in your tea. You don't need to buy milk you muderer!

All the doomsayers. You can spot them from a mile off as they start posts with "unfortunately, "I'm afraid" or "sorry, but..."

I will remember getting the text to book my vaccination after worrying I would be missed off the list. I had this huge rush of relief. Not sure anyone has ever clicked on a link that fast ever

My other big one, having a cry when that needle went to Margaret’s arm and we knew the vaccine was coming. It was how I imagine my grandmother felt went the war was declared over.

Seeing my mum in the carehome on her birthday. They had made her a cake and the nurse sneaked me in in full PPE. I remember it was a nice cake. Mum was in an ok (ish) mood.

She died two weeks later. I will be ever grateful to that nurse.

@poppycat10

I still remember that Monday, because it is a family birthday. We were sitting around the MILs and she is extremely vulnerable. Bojo made his announcement at 5pm that the vulnerable had to shield. We all sat looking at each other and said 'we'd best go home then

I remember that Monday too because a relative had got married on the Sunday (about 1/4 of the guests didn't turn up, but they had a good day and to our knowledge nobody got covid that day) - DH and I stayed overnight and it was a very odd atmosphere in the hotel and around the town, we just went straight home the following day.

I went swimming that evening, it was a full class which never happens, I think everyone realised it was going to be the last time for a while.

14th March - last parkrun. I noted on Strava that it was likely to be the last for a while but wasn't expecting them not to be back after nearly a year. Local half marathon cancelled at the last minute (though the Bath HM on the same day was not, and I've often wondered if there was a spike in cases in the Bath area).

I also remember my last parkrun on that day- it was number 198 and wondered then if I would get to 200 before the summer...!

Seeing the supermarket shelves empty and sending a picture to my sister in disbelief.

Walking to the supermarket during the first few weeks of lockdown and there not bein a car on the road, so eerie and unnerving, then queuing to get in silently, everybody robotically stepping forward every few minutes.

Being the only person on a daytime tube train, getting off onto a deserted station and seeing no one in the streets either. Over the course of several months, watching more and more premises be boarded up.

Daily exercise around Parliament square in the first lockdown. Days went by when we didn’t see any one at all. Properly apocalyptic.

Just before Christmas when it was cancelled and my 6yo and I heard the announcement meaning we wouldn’t be able to see much loved grandparents and family, and for the first time we just cried and cried.

My mum texting me to say she couldn’t bear it any longer and was getting in the car to come and see us. We spent the whole visit expecting to get a knock on the door from the police.

The fear that we would run out of food when I couldn’t get a delivery and was frightened to take a child to the shops after stories of empty shelves and fighting. I don’t think I will ever not have a stash of tins and dried goods in the house now.

Watching my year one walk into school after the first lockdown, and immediately feeling almost human again. I hope that happens again.

Walking around the supermarket with empty shelves and people arguing and just standing there bursting into tears. Felt like I was in a parallel universe. I cried the rest of the shop and for hours when I got home.

My bed broke one night at my DDs (4yo at the time) bedtime in the middle of June last year and I had to phone my dad to come and help me fix it. This was before extended households. Single parent and I couldn’t hold the 2 parts together on my own and screw them back together, I needed another adult set of hands. We hadn’t seen my parents any closer than the end of the drive since lockdown started and DD missed them terribly.

She was SO happy to see him inside our house. When it was done and it was time for him to go, she cried and cried. I’ve never seen her more upset. She kept on saying that if she could go with him for a sleepover and see granny, she promised she’d be good and she would sleep all night in her own bed (She creeps into bed with me in the middle of the night). I’ll always remember how upset she was.

Going back further, the press conference to announce lockdown for the first time and the sheer feeling of helplessness and ‘how in the fuck are we going to do this’.

Getting Covid at 32 weeks pregnant! The birth of my second DD (she's nearly 3 weeks old). Mask wearing. Haunting images of people on ventilators. Feeling low quite often. Thinking that I'll never take seeing family and friends (and doing simple things like going out for a coffee and taking toddler DD to the library) for granted again!

I still pinch myself.

Worst moments:
DS age 13 being one of the first people in our town to be tested after returning with a cough from an Italian ski trip at Feb half term

Telling DS that our long awaited trip to New Zealand at the end of March 2020 for my DF's 80th had been cancelled

Praying for Wuhan - DB & family lived in China at the time

The heart-wrenching scenes from Italy

Boris telling the nation that loved ones would die

Boris dithering & delaying...

Losing my Uncle

Losing my DFIL

Telling DS this January that we're in another lockdown

Positives:

Learning what is truly valuable (family & friends, health)

Seeing FIL through a window a week before he passed

Getting a puppy - he's been such a tonic

Feeling grateful for living where we do

Finally cracking baking

Time to read

So sorry for those who've lost people, jobs, businesses

Thursday 19th March 2020, when my wedding venue finally called and said they had taken the decision that our wedding, less than two months away at that point, would be postponed. I sobbed with relief, because for a week we'd had the prospect of us making that call and potentially losing a crazy amount money hanging over us. Two days before that I had been having my wedding dress fitted. Two days later I was in bed with what may well have been Covid. It was a surreal week at the start of what has been nearly a year of surreal moments, but that phonecall was the point at which I felt the full force of the thing.

@Itsabeautifuldaytosavelives

My bed broke one night at my DDs (4yo at the time) bedtime in the middle of June last year and I had to phone my dad to come and help me fix it. This was before extended households. Single parent and I couldn’t hold the 2 parts together on my own and screw them back together, I needed another adult set of hands. We hadn’t seen my parents any closer than the end of the drive since lockdown started and DD missed them terribly.

She was SO happy to see him inside our house. When it was done and it was time for him to go, she cried and cried. I’ve never seen her more upset. She kept on saying that if she could go with him for a sleepover and see granny, she promised she’d be good and she would sleep all night in her own bed (She creeps into bed with me in the middle of the night). I’ll always remember how upset she was.

Going back further, the press conference to announce lockdown for the first time and the sheer feeling of helplessness and ‘how in the fuck are we going to do this’.

The things DS says have stuck in my mind, too.

My mum is in Kent and we used to go and stay with her and she used to come and stay with us. DS was still only 3 when we went into lockdown first time and so I didn’t explain much. He had his 4th birthday party via zoom with both sets of grandparents and my brother and then a few days after, he asked if his Granny (my mum) didn’t like him anymore because she wouldn’t let us go to her house/come to our house anymore

This January, after I’d had to tell him he couldn’t go back to school, he seemed to understand. A week after, he turned to me and said, ‘mummy, I know why I’m not allowed back to school. It’s because I’m a naughty boy ’