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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:
PolkadotsAndCandyfloss · 14/02/2021 04:20
  • The moment when I realised we were on the same trajectory as Italy, and seeing the graphs of cases and deaths going into the same scary spikes.
  • Crying till I thought my heart would break after being made redundant from a dream job I’d worked years to get in the arts, which is now on its knees.
  • The first time we all clapped for the NHS and it felt really poignant.
  • An online music festival which gave me hope that even in adversity, those who truly love the arts will strive for them to pull through.
  • I have been fortunate to have had positives, and after being made redundant I’ve got a better paid job as well as freelance work I love. I am one of the lucky ones and I’m grateful, and will support the less fortunate where I can.
Purpleneonpinkunicorns · 14/02/2021 04:47

My uncle dying all alone and most of the family having to stream his funeral due to various members living all over the country.

Also remember crying my eyes out and finally being able to get a delivery slot (in what if you told me in 2019 I taken for granted).

Watching all the press conferences and seeing how scary the pandemic is and how it's affecting the whole world.

Has made my anxiety and agoraphobia much worse, but also wanting me to get better so I can never take 'normal times for granted again when it finally happens/if.

Sorry to all those that have lost loved ones Flowers.

2 positives - learnt to bake lemon drizzle cake and learnt to grow tomatoes and carrots.

garlictwist · 14/02/2021 05:25

I was at work (a university) just before lockdown started. A student came in to say he was leaving as they were about to close the borders to his country.

It just sounded like such a weird, other worldly thing to say.

SummeHoliday · 14/02/2021 05:38

Going over to visit friends the evening before we went into lockdown, and wondering as we left whether we would see them again, and who we would see - and who would not make it.

I'm in NZ, and we went into lockdown before the first case here. The impending sense of a huge tidal wave approaching, with nothing we could do to stop it.

Thewishingchair123 · 14/02/2021 05:54

Our entire office floor being called over to the atrium on Monday March 16th 2020 at gone 5pm
Our MD told us we must take all our work equipment and work from home from that point onwards, and to direct our work office phones to our work mobile phones. We weren’t a very flexible company (although we are huge) and I had to ask the IT guy what I needed to do on my laptop to make it work remotely. It all felt so surreal.

Hugging my coworker at that point - completely forgetting it was very unwise (there were no formal rules then but we temporarily lost common sense).

That same Monday evening my OH saying it would be a good idea to go food shopping and get a few things in. At the supermarket I vividly remember only severely crushed cans being left in one of the aisles.

Putting DS school shoes away in the cupboard about a week later and feeling sad as I didn’t think he’d get to wear them again. He didn’t.

Home-schooling with my DS then 6 the first few weeks of lock-down whilst trying to work, There were lots of tears (mainly mine out of sight).

Having a lunch break and taking my son for a walk on a very hot day in May. He asked for an iced lolly from a local garage shop as he was thirsty. I remember the unease I felt as it wasn’t essential. I made him wait outside and bought something else so it looked more ‘essential’.

The chaos of not going back to school on January 4th. The night before putting DS to bed, telling him we weren’t sure if he was going or not and having to tell him when he woke up. That felt chaotic for such a young mind.

Many more feelings, songs and hearing about acts of kindness as well as acts of selfishness.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 14/02/2021 06:20

So, so many memories seared into my mind.

Picking up dd from university just before the first lockdown. It felt like an evacuation, we were grimly efficient.

Losing half my work in one fell swoop. Hiding in the garage weeping about this. I hid in the garage a lot.

The joy of a food delivery after weeks of struggling not getting any food delivered. I'd been advised I'd needed to shield and we had been living off supplies. We couldn't get any delivery slots for a long time.

The freedom to walk along country roads without being squashed by cars.

Debating with dh in the summer whether it was safe enough for us to buy ice cream from a shop we were walking past. We survived obviously and it was delicious.

The first time I went back into a shop myself after months of not going in any. Wearing a face mask and hyperventilating with panic. I wasn't worried about the virus especially, just the seismic change I could see and not having been around anyone other than my family for a long time.

Do you think many of us are suffering from collective trauma over this? It is a hard thread to read, but it feels important to acknowledge what we've been and are going through.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 14/02/2021 06:23

@Learningtofeminist

As of this evening: lying in a hospital bed without my husband, waiting to hear if I’m miscarrying the pregnancy we spent over 18 months of ivf (some of which was postponed obviously) trying for 😢
:( Flowers
Inthevirtualwaitingroom · 14/02/2021 06:38

When i received a christmas card from my dsis saying she was coming to see dm just after christmas, I was so upset and worried, i just wanted to cancel chrirstmas. Thankfully the decision was made.

intheshallows · 14/02/2021 06:56
  • my grandma dying in a care home in April and me feeling too scared to attend her funeral on the other side of the country
  • buying masks for my family and a few pieces of extra food from January as I could see what has happening- New Scientist made it very clear what was going to happen but I felt so paranoid next to everyone else who seemed to think it was all blown out of proportion!
  • having my son's emergency first birthday party a few days before lockdown two just so my parents would actually be allowed to our house to celebrate it. It was probably my happiest day of all time
  • the numerous mental health breakdowns
Iamclearlyamug · 14/02/2021 07:00

It hasn’t happened yet, but it’ll be the moment I see my fiancé waiting at arrivals in the airport and I can finally hug him. Apart 5 months so far and god knows how long left 😢

marieantoinehairnet · 14/02/2021 07:02

Not a specific moment, but constantly having to essentially neglect my young children whilst they're at home and I'm working... I don't think I'll ever shake the guilt of what it's doing to them

Armi · 14/02/2021 07:03

Going into school the first day back after October half term,when masks were to be worn in communal areas. I have no problems with masks (I think we should be wearing them all the time in school) but it felt so awful and difficult and even more isolating from colleagues. I remember crying at the photocopier and being relieved that my mask and social distancing meant people might not notice.

DontBeShelfish · 14/02/2021 07:23

@Learningtofeminist

As of this evening: lying in a hospital bed without my husband, waiting to hear if I’m miscarrying the pregnancy we spent over 18 months of ivf (some of which was postponed obviously) trying for 😢
Oh God, I'm so sorry. I've had miscarriages and even without all that, they're pretty miserable affairs. I very much doubt the wishes of an internet stranger count for much, but I'll be thinking of you today. Thanks
Monkeytennis97 · 14/02/2021 07:38

@crossstitchingnana

The news from Spain, couple of weeks before we started to lockdown, of care homes abandoned by staff. Dead and alive residents, just left. That will haunt me forever.
Yes. As my DS is in a care home this petrified me. It's just awful.
sonnysunshine · 14/02/2021 07:44

Despirately ill in March with what was almost certainly covid begging my MP to get public health to change the advice.
(Public health told both DP who is a nurse to go to work despite me being ill and to send the kids to school. I knew this was wrong even though I was delirious half the time. Lockdown happened a week later. I kept the kids off against advice though they did go in one day.)

Allmyarseandpeggymartin · 14/02/2021 07:54

@OhYouBadBadKitten I think we are almost definitely suffering from a collective trauma as a nation. This is a hard thread to read but it feels important in some way.

Bigbadger · 14/02/2021 07:59

The last assembly we had in school before we closed. The head let the year 6s sing their leavers song as we didn’t know if they’d be coming back. Looking round the hall and genuinely wanting to cry thinking which of us will make it through this and be back. Horrible Sad

Liervik · 14/02/2021 08:05

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ for privacy reasons.

BikeRunSki · 14/02/2021 08:08

100s of anxiety induced sleepless nights

year5teacher · 14/02/2021 08:11

Boris addressing the nation saying we were in lockdown on the 23rd March, which was my dad’s 60th birthday. I really remember that because it felt so serious. Also being on placement right at the start and constantly checking the news to see the increase in cases every day.

year5teacher · 14/02/2021 08:14

Oh and when there was a note on the empty shelves of the local Sainsbury’s saying about shortages due to the pandemic. It was very early on. I think the things I remember most were right at the beginning when it all started to feel real. It very quickly became somehow normal but the time I’ve lost with my parents hurts so much. I’d normally have spent so many nights at theirs over the past year, dinners together... I’ve seen them, but at no point has it been indoors or at less than 2m. I’m still very lucky, but that’s the worst part.

babyyodaxmas · 14/02/2021 08:23

Queuing up on Xmas Eve to get my vaccine. It was late, everyone was exhausted,we were all being so careful to distance, lots of masks, we knew we were a risk to each other, it was a long wait (arrived at 16:30, left just after 19:00), but we waited seeing the look in all the eyes above the masks, joyful yet cautious and determined. We could hardly believe the day had come. The hospital was full (300 Covid patients) we knew there was worse to come, we were all having Christmas just with our households(tier 4), if lucky enough to be off, yet there was hope.

bofski14 · 14/02/2021 08:25

I will never forget my fiance's face when he came home after saying goodbye to his father for the last time as he was cruelly taken by Covid at the age of 61. He had to communicate with him through a patio door. When he came home, we were so scared that he may have picked the virus up as he'd had to stay with a relative while there (a relative that we were told had been completely isolating but later found out that wasn't true at all) that he immediately quarantined himself in the living room for a full fortnight. I will never forget seeing him in the armchair, a strapping 6ft man just looking like a lost child. I desperately wanted to hug him but we were so scared incase it caused more death. It was a very cruel time. I've never been afraid to hug someone before and he needed me but we were both so scared. I spent every night sitting outside the living room door on a stool, the only light from the street lamp outside and we just talked and talked into the wee small hours of the morning. Everything was so still and calm but inside our feelings were rushing and in total turmoil. I'll never forget those nights.

MilesJuppIsMyBitch · 14/02/2021 08:26

I only posted one of my negatives yesterday (which still looms over me like a dark cloud), but my huge positive has been spending so much time with my wonderful kids. They are just sunshine.

Also, looking at the stars every night in the garden (for perspective), and hearing a cuckoo for the first time in my life.

TheBakedPototo · 14/02/2021 08:26

Being refused entry to our local corner shop as I had toddler DS with me on the day after DH was deployed back in April, and the overwhelming sense of fear that as a single parent household I may be totally unable to provide for my son. Thankfully it has never happened again.