Which specific moment from this will stay with you forever?

[RosieLemonade]

Positive or negative.

Arguing with a colleague in March about if the schools would close and how long for. She felt it was impossible they'd be closed for more than two weeks.

Days before lockdown fighting in a supermarket to get a specific brand of formula for a friend who's household had been advised to shield.

The first 'clap'.

The joyous heatwave, DH wasn't working and day after day was spent playing with the DC in he garden, in and out of the paddling pool, eating ice lollies and BBQing everything in sight.

A circle of primary kids hugging each other goodbye on the last day of school in March.

The first time that schools closed, I dropped my DD off and she ran in happily, as did all the other children, and I turned away and cried. Then I went into my office to collect the things I needed to work from home and had a panic attack.

Two: visiting a covid ward to say goodbye to my DF, then visiting a covid ward in another hospital the next day to tell my DM he had gone.

Oh and I remember having a conversation with DS (20) who was at uni 300 miles away about him coming home. He was dithering about 'waiting to see what happened' etc and DH both felt he should come home. I remember being quite firm and direct, saying I was sending him the money NOW for a train ticket etc. He later said that was the moment he realised the whole things was very serious (and thankfully he grabbed a bag and hopped on the train that evening!)

My eldest daughter who, having been at the same school since she was 2 and achieved more than I can still believe, leaving without a proper goodbye. I’m not sure that will ever not hurt.

The PM on that first broadcast telling us we had to stay home. It felt so ominous.

Having my daughter home with her friends for lunch in the garden in the summer without her being able to go upstairs to her own bedroom.

Back in March, in my last week at work with the children still at school, with a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach, that something ominous was about to happen.
Picking up my youngest from infant school knowing that, after so many years, it would be our last time ever in that school playground. Going out with a whimper, not the usual celebratory bang.
More recently, walking down the high street on a bleak, grey Saturday afternoon, biting easterly wind, snow coming down, most of the shops in total darkness. Hardly any people around and those that I saw, huddled into their coats with masks on. I really felt as if I’d stumbled into some sort of dystopian nightmare.

First day of lockdown 1, getting the phonecall to say my dad had died, and knowing I wouldn't even be able to have a funeral for him.
Having to get my mum into a care home that I never saw
Getting the phone call to say that they thought my mum would die and knowing she wouldn't get a funeral either

Professionally lots, but maybe this one over all others, probably about start Feb 2020 (we work in infectious diseases):

"This is it, the big one, this is the Spanish Flu of our generation" I told a colleague. He turned instantly pale & quietly said "16 million people DIED of Spanish flu."
I flustered and said "I don't know if that will happen, but this is going to be big ."

Personally many, this jumps to mind:
Large Playground in village: finding big locks on gates and warning "Closed due to covid!" signs. Never reopened after March 2020. Garden centre & golf course nearby reopened of course. Places old people want to use, they re-opened, but not spaces children like to use. I have smouldering rage about this.

because it's history

Luckily I kept a diary throughout lockdown 1. It has been interesting.

Saying goodbye to my mum when she left our house in March and hugging her as if it might be the last time whilst she told me how proud she was of me.

For me it was that first govt advert "stay home, protect the NHS, save lives".

I found it chilling. It had out of focus shots of people in hospital etc. One was obviously an elderly person with liver-spotted hands, taking shallow breaths. It made me think of my elderly parents hundreds of miles away and how dangerous the times were for them. They are vaccinated now and I'm so grateful for that.

My line manager having to fill in a risk assessment for me to see if I was going to be sent home to be shielded.

That was a WTF moment.

Trying to work out how to get to work when the trains had shut down for the first lockdown and realising that instead of leaving at 0430 (for the train), I'd have to leave the house at 0345 to get a bus, then a tram, then another bus and I'd still late.

Nothing hopefully. I'd like to block out the whole horrific nightmare.

April 2020. I was obsessed with looking at the TFL jam-cams online. Scenes of completely empty streets. Places in London that would be usually be busy completely deserted. It was so eerie.

One Saturday night, I was looking at the camera views of Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Soho - places that were pretty much permanently bustling and lit up and full of traffic and tourists and revellers - and it was like a ghost town. Not a single soul on any street. Every camera I clicked on showed the same deserted scene, but every now and then you’d see an ambulance sailing along an empty street. It really did feel like ‘the end of the world as we know it’.

Chilling. I’ll never forget it.

Oh. And the Queen. What she said was perfect.

@Donoteatthekittens

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

I'll never forget how utterly mean some MNs are. The ones that minimise it all, it's so unnecessary to go around telling people they're nosy curtain twitching Covid police.

The positive was watching the tv or social media and seeing all the pulling together, all the community bits on the news or in groups on fb, seeing rainbows in everyone's windows, fancy frock Friday. All the things that made a really shit situation bearable by seeing kindness everywhere.

And the thing that will stick in my mind forever more was the 'stay at home message' coming from my tv from Bojo, truly a moment in time thing.

The day after I did all my last minute holiday shopping and realising that our long awaited holiday to Australia which we had worked our butts off to save money for might actually not go ahead as planned a week later....

It didn't.

I handled everything beyond that point quite well as it became expected and not a shock but our flight was was 20th March and it was genuinely a heartbreaking shock to it all.

My boss emailing me saying I am paid by the crown so I will return to work 400 miles away, despite knowing I'm home schooling 2 children and my husband works outside the home. Because I'm paid by the crown, my DHs job is not and so he should stop working and deal with the children.

It did not go down too well I can assure you.

DHs job is not priority*

This entire pandemic has put things into perspective, and I think I almost cried Wedsnesday or Thursday when we were all 'hanging out' in our office after work/homeschool. We're all so close now. We've shielded since March because DH is ECV (although DS did go to school Sept to Dec), but he's totally worth our support. His second vaccine is coming up, so this spring will be less stressful, and less indoors! (within reason of course )

Having my second child (positive) that nobody has met (negative). He’s growing so fast and is such a content little boy but nobody knows him and his little ways as they did at this point with my eldest.