Which specific moment from this will stay with you forever?

[RosieLemonade]

Positive or negative.

Last June. Walking through a hushed country town with my adult son and outside a church was a coffin on trestles and a beautiful voice singing Ave Maria accapello. We stopped and stood, heads bowed and we both cried.

For me that will always be the symbol of this awful time - that funeral as close to the church as possible because it wasn’t allowed inside.

Meeting my brother in a motorway service station to exchange Christmas presents and wish him a happy 40th. Drank a quick glass of bubbly to celebrate his birthday with a Burger King whilst standing on opposite sides of our car. The car park was full of people exchanging gifts and standing well apart. So surreal.

Going to the airport to get a mass family Covid test. As we waited in a weird apocalyptic car park full of big white tents and people in PPE the Emirates flight that we usually jump on to go on holiday took off next to us. That was a bit of a jolt.

Getting my first shielding letter and not leaving the house for weeks and weeks. Then one day it all just got on top of me and I practically ran to the park up the road. Stood in the middle on a beautiful day and just bawled my eyes out, huge racking sobs, because the sky was so BIG.

Having a lockdown birthday bbq on a beautiful day, with the neighbours on both sides also having a bbq to help me celebrate.That was nice.

Driving to work on the Monday after Boris had told everyone to stay home or you could die type thing. The Roads were empty and I was really scared and angry thinking why am I not safe at home how do people find courage when the chips are down.
I remember thinking well it’s tough your job just happens to be in the firing line like many others and you have to suck it up.
I’m not even important in the scheme of things admin in a Nursing Home but staff needed to be paid.
I know it seems dramatic but I genuinely thought I could be being sent to die here.
I did catch it a few weeks later as did a lot of the staff and residents.

March 2020, having to leave the room and cry during the Year11 goodbye assembly. We let them sign shirts and hug, but it broke my heart that they were so excited and carefree, not seeing the sadness that was ahead of us all. It was the last normal moment.

Same day, crying in the supermarket because I couldn't get my child a specific food that could not be replaced with anything else (autism does not go well with alternatives).

Feeling terror at every shielding letter and the reality that we were in more danger than others.

Feeling grateful for priority online shopping slots (but wiping down everything with dettol).

Mental health nosedive, helped by friends visiting on the driveway and in the garden

Having to halt fertility treatment as the clinic closed so that their staff could help the NHS - totally respected it, but was gutted

Zoom. FaceTime. Teams.

Having proper time with my teenage dc. That was special and I felt very lucky.

Sun, cold drinks, gardening. Going in the sea for the first time in months.

The weekly clap for carers.

Being terrified that Boris would die, even though I think he was and is terrifyingly incompetent

Rage at the Dominic Cummings lies, enhanced by those of Gove etc.

Worshipping Chris Whitty as the adult in the room, and the Queen's wonderful speech on the day Boris was hospitalised

Breaking at the thought of those who died alone, especially the 13-year-old boy, and those who have lost people they shouldn't have

It is not over, but it has made me more scared for and more appreciative of those I love, and that can only be a good thing. Except for the fear it brings.

Also, reading this letter www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/27/a-letter-to-the-uk-from-italy-this-is-what-we-know-about-your-future

It really brought home to me that we had a chance to accept reality. I don't think our politicians (or anti-lockdowners) have ever done so.

I miss the unity the country felt in 2020 in that first lockdown. Feels more divided now.

Its got to be telling 50% of our employees that they would be made redundant.

This thread is heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure. The struggles, the help from strangers, the tragic loss of life and the sheer fragility and strength of the human spirit , amazing

LOTS of awful/weird stuff but from the good stuff:

In the sunshine in my hammock having worked like stink on a garden project, DS1 brought me a chilled tin of ready made M&S cocktail at 11am. I said what's all this about drinking in the daytime. He raised the cans and said in his best Captain Jack Sparrow voice "Welcome to the lockdown, darling " and we howled laughing.

Just a snapshot but I'll never forget it.

On the 23rd March, seeing a Year 6 boy, usually really upbeat and happy, curdled up
and crying in the playground. I comforted him, but I really didn’t know what to say...

Watching my dad die of covid last month. We didn't know he had it as had been discharged from hospital with a negative test.

Two days later mum fell ill with it and then 12 days after that she too died.

I honestly thought last year was bad but this year so far has been bloody awful

Starting a new job on 1st April and not seeing any of my new colleagues for months and months, strangest start to a job I've ever had. Sat at my kitchen table at 9am to start my new job and nothing happened......don't know what I was expecting but something

@RosieLemonade

Learning to be happy with what we have and seeing the beauty all around.

Looking at a deserted Plaza del Sol in Madrid on webcam. (This was very early on.)

The ten hours (no exaggeration) that I spent on hold to Disney about changing/refunding our holiday when trump shut the borders for the first time back in March... we were due to fly the next morning :(

Camping on the garden with my girls and watching the meteor showers

Finding out my 40 year old friend died of Covid. He was a wonderful guy, with a lovely wife and young family. It took my breath away when I heard the news and I can't stop picturing him in ICU and thinking about what his family have gone through. Devastating.

I am sad for lots of people. Those who have lost livelihoods and businesses. Those who have lost relatives or indeed their own lives.

Losing my dad to it

Having surgery for breast cancer on the day of Lockdown 1.

Lots of negatives, but the main positive thing for me is being able to spend more time with my son and being there for all of his firsts. I returned from mat leave the day after Bojo announced lockdown last March. If things were normal I probably would of missed some of them like his first steps

Positive - VE Day and sitting on our drive with our neighbours on their drive having a few drinks

Negative- redundancy consolation and furlough. I struggled constantly

Several

Not really positive or negative was the moment it sank in to me how privileged I was to have had the chance to say goodbye to a dying relative a year or two before covid happened. I never thought that would be something I considered a privilege but now I do.

Negative- the government’s drive to get homeless off of the streets has put a bunch of junkies in our building and means my 8 and 12 year old now know all about the smell of weed, and the items required for injecting heroine because they get left all over the building. Oh and the junkies ignore covid guidelines obviously and keep us up all night screaming random ramblings out of their windows from 10pm until 4am making me actually contemplate how much quieter my life would be if they fell out of the window. Which I am aware makes me a horrid human being but sleep deprivation has turned me and my kids into very irritable people.

Losing my aunt to covid and not being able to see her and the family I'm heartbroken.

Driving down the M1 on the 19th March to pick up my son from boarding school knowing his A levels had cancelled when they announced the Scottish exams where cancelled too, I knew ds would be fine and come out of it ok but dd had just bombed her prelims for her highers and needed to sit her exams to claw it back. Spent the last half hr of my journey fighting back tears and when I got to college to get ds first I was waved in through the security barriers when usually we are checked going in then I had to wait for him in the car park and wasn’t allowed in.
As it turned out ds did do fine and got into first choice uni. Dd has had to have a rethink of what she wants to do and is resitting some of her highers now, hoping she will get enough to get into uni.

Joining my friends bubble and seeing her tiny son taking his first steps. My son being able to play with her older daughter once a week.
The local adventure playground making bubbles do my son sees his best friend from home Ed again.
Some very odd zoom calls. Getting closer to ppl via Facebook IMs

Realising that after all the Apocalypse now helicopters flying noisily overhead day & night putting the Nightingale hospital together on my doorstep that at my age if I got sick they would just let me die anyway. It really sank in how little older people are valued & made me determined not to get ill whatever it cost me - staying in, taking no risks, wearing masks every time I stepped outside. I will never forget this insult