Which specific moment from this will stay with you forever?

[RosieLemonade]

Positive or negative.

Going into my bosses office to say the guidance said I needed to shield and I'd checked with my doctor and she'd agreed. It was the day after social distancing had been announced and a few days before lockdown. I'd being trying to bury my head in the sand because I was scared but colleagues were sending me the guidance. I'm asthmatic and I'd been really ill with pneumonia the year before. The atmosphere in the office was weird. Everyone was trying to keep away from each other, people were disinfecting everything with whatever they'd found at home and my boss was planning a WFH rota to reduce numbers in the office.

There was an obvious look of relief on her face when I asked if I'd be able to WFH full time. I left the office about half an hour later after gathering anything I might need and I didn't go back for 4 months (except a 7am visit one day before people arrived as I needed to reset my password.)

I'm so glad I have colleagues who care.

My father dying in a care home and staff unable to give or receive hugs. None of my siblings being able to travel for his funeral.

Also I cried when the children’s nursery shut and they couldn’t play with their friends and missed all the fun and no playgrounds all summer or swimming
It’s such a loss

Bad:
Watching my Mum's funeral on a video link. My Dad felt too vulnerable to go and there was no way I was leaving him to watch it on his own. No-one else went either and we were not allowed to dress her so she was in her pyjamas. Flowers were almost impossible to get with all the florists closed and flower wholesalers shut but I managed it in the end.

Watching my son's face fall when he opened his Governement moderated A level results. Thankfully later restored to what his teachers said he should have been awarded.

Being shocked at the number of people on our local beach in the Summer and the way the car park was rammed with cars and the parking had spilled over to the surrounding areas. At the ticket machine, I found out people had travelled miles and miles to be there which is not what happens normally.

Good:
Lockdown birthday was better than expected with friends zooming me especially the ones that dressed up for the occasion whilst we enjoyed our respective cocktails.

Being very grateful to live in a village so that I can wave at people from my kitchen window as they walk their dogs.

The day the schools closed in lockdown 1.
Seeing my class leave and crying my eyes out.

My grandads face as I left him in hospital before he died. I thought he had turned a corner. He died the next day.

From the first lockdown, VE day when we all sat outside in the street in the sunshine. This year both my parents going into hospital last month but only my mum coming home again, still very recent and raw and I think it's only the fact I'm having to sort everything out for the funeral and mum's finances that's keeping me upright at the moment.

I’m a hospital doctor. For me it was witnessing the will of a close work friend very early in Wave 1, and properly realising that any of us could die in our line of work. Two of my close colleagues (including the friend whose will I witnessed) caught Covid at work but thankfully recovered. One of the young nurses at our Trust recently died from it

My first day back at work after maternity leave. I’d moved into a senior role and just remember sitting on the floor trying to entertain my 10 month old baby and manage a day of video conferences at the same time. I just felt completely overwhelmed at the thought of having to try and do that again and again every day for the foreseeable future. I’m still not sure how I survived it.

My most positive memory was just after the first lockdown. It was DDs first birthday, and we were so excited that we could go for a day out. We took her to the zoo, had a picnic and ice cream. It was a really low key day but after months of restrictions it just felt so special to be able to do something nice as a family.

Long days homeworking next to my husband at the dining room table, followed by long warm evenings drinking wine in the garden

Managing to get some celebs to send video birthday messages via Twitter to my DD, and her face when she saw them

That very first Clap for Carers, so moving

Discovering a rope swing in the trees on our evening walk

Kids watching Red Bull Soapbox Races on the TV every day during their homeschool lunch break

A caravan in East Sussex in a 36 degree heatwave (not fun)

Not being able to hug my parents (still longing for that moment)

Long evenings in front of the TV with kids discovering Outnumbered and finding it hilarious

Finding out that despite all the difficulties we face as a family (anxiety, depression, adhd, ASD) that we actually get along pretty damn well

@nannykatherine

There are lots of moments I will never forget but at the start when the news was reporting 800 people a day dying in Italy was a shock ..obviously things got much worse after that everywhere and still Is ..

I can't remember exact numbers so please humour me but I remember reading something about when we get to say x thousands deaths and saying to DH that will never happen! He looked at me like I was mad and said y hundred people a day are dying. We will be at x thousand by the end of the week.

Not a specific moment but I think the whole takeaway from the pandemic for me is the beautiful coming together, feeling of solidarity at the beginning, during the first lockdown, and the nasty bitter bickering that has developed since. We have seen the best and worst of humankind this last 12 months.

A specific moment would be seeing someone wearing a mask for the first time. I remember thinking she was being over careful and frankly a little hysterical. This was February last year before things had really kicked off. The woman was holding a tiny baby. I am not usually a judgmental person but I was that day. I really regret thinking about her like that and have often wondered about her and her baby, who must just have turned one.

inews.co.uk/culture/television/cant-get-you-out-of-my-head-bbc-iplayer-review-adam-curtis-868095

When I watched this and it confirmed everything I thought.

A specific moment would be seeing someone wearing a mask for the first time. I remember thinking she was being over careful and frankly a little hysterical

Oh yeah, I remember MIL turning up at our house at some point early on with a pack of masks she’d had made for us. I thought she was insane, and stuffed them in a drawer.

I missed the news on the weekend before the first lockdown last March, so I didn't even know that we were in lockdown.. At work the next day (Monday) people were going on about keeping a 2-meter distance from colleagues, and I thought they were joking! Getting a text from the government saying "You must stay at home"- WTF? The queues at Tesco, snaking round the car park, with people & their trolleys all keeping a 2-meter distance from the person in front. Turning up at my gym in the morning, & finding it closed until further notice. Not being able to get a haircut. Going for walks, and people coming in the opposite direction keeping a wide berth & turning their backs to me, as if I was some kind of lepper. And now, gyms are closed again, & I can't get enough exercise, and once again, I can't get a haircut!

Finding my mother dead in her house five weeks ago due to a massive heart attack. Had her appointment with a cardiologist in December included the scans and tests as normal she might still be here.

Negative
Last day of school in March - primary kids confused parents in tears and worried sick

Telling ds he couldn't see his gp at Christmas then days later school was not returning - London so basically kids lost everything in quick succession

POSITIVES
ve street party - kids just seeing each other and a G&t in the sun

Driving manically to mil who had been alone for months when single people could bubble -tears hugs and her first meal with another human for months- ds being happy and very sad about it at the same time as he realised what he'd missed

The fact I have not been able to see my bf for the majority of it but we are still together by some miracle.

Despite missing my grown up children, the change in the dynamics has brought DH and me closer, with more time for each other which has and is bringing much joy. The other thing I treasure is home schooling my granddaughter on zoom, and watching her learn new things. I know I’m lucky. One of the great things about being older.

Having my COVID test at Dreamland, Margate car park. One of the most surreal experiences. It was like a science fiction film.

Flying across the world on an empty plane.

Someone described it really well upthread as the 'hushed panic' of shopping before the first lockdown. That whole period was eerie and clouded with such dread. Clients cancelling one by one. Going climbing a few days before lockdown. We purposefully did an easy climb well within our capabilities, thinking it wouldn't be wise to push limits and take any risks of injury and end up in hospital. A photographer took photos of us and I remarked DP that we might end up COVIDIOT shamed in the paper! We chased him down later just to check 😂 The shock, even though it wasn't a shock, of the first lockdown announcement. Long long walks in the scorching sun. The moment during a walk when my hyper fit DP with relentless enegey said 'I don't feel right. I'm too tired. I need to go home'. Turns out he had had covid but was asymptomatic, and that moment was the start of the most horrendous journey of severe long covid, still very much ongoing. Laying with the DC in the garden and all of us being amazed to see a single plane fly across the sky. The day the ice cream parlour down the road reopened. I didn't tell the DC when it reopened, just walked them down there as a surprise and let them order anything they wanted! We were giddy with the thrill and the sugar rush!

My dad dying of covid in January. Hadn't seen him for months as wasn't allowed visitors to keep safe. Then a carer gave half the home covid.

Having surgery in August, alone, everyone in ppe, no visitors and no visitors when I came home either and was stuck in a wheelchair then sticks for quite a while so couldn't even go out for a walk.

Positive I finally got an allotment and the amazing weather last year meant I had somewhere safe to escape to (it's a locked site) and kept myself busy, kids were especially amazed to grow their own pumpkins for Halloween.

A couple of weeks ago when my husband was admitted to hospital for surgery and tested positive on admission.

Watching my neighbour stand on his doorstep as his wife who was sick with cancer was driven off in an ambulance ... it passed some other neighbours further down the Mews who we having a street party with no social distancing jn sight and as the ambulance drove past them they all clapped and cheered .. I thought it was totally heartless of them and I called the police

Losing a loved one and having to attend their funeral virtually

Being creative and trying to create positive memories for the kids

Realising how lucky I am to be in lockdown with my family and not alone or in a houseshare with people I might struggle to get on with in a lockdown situation