Which specific moment from this will stay with you forever?

[RosieLemonade]

Positive or negative.

The day in March my boss phoned my personal mobile on my day off and told me I was not to go back into the office or to see any patients face to face.

The moment it was confirmed that I would have to shield alone with my 2 year old and try to work. How hard it was to get grocery deliveries.

The only people we saw for weeks were either on out doorstep dropping things off or the nurse who came in to take my bloods and teach me how to inject myself.

The joy we found in the little things. The kindness and generosity of others. The first hug with my best friend which I wished would never end. Endless summer days on the beach.

Feeling utterly terrified and confused and like the shielders had been forgotten about. That the government could not be trusted.

Cycling around Covent Garden in early April. It was entirely empty. Not a single other person in sight, not even a security guard (normally you can't move for shoppers/tourists etc and cycling unthinkable there). It was as spooky as hell.

The first close friend I lost, and realizing that there would be no funeral...maybe a memorial service that would be MONTHS away. My cousin followed hard on the heels of the first one. There have been 18 now, and each one just guts me.

My OH turning to me one night on the sofa in May 2020 and telling me how much he had learnt from covid, he went self employed in January 2020 so it was a really challenging time ...then he asked me to marry him and told me the only thing he was certain he needed was me and the kids 🥰

No loo rolls or bread or flour at the supermarket. Walking along the usually busy road at 8am in glorious sunshine, breathing in the clear air and watching a roe deer walk across the fields.

Italian doctors having to decide who to remove ventilators from so those with better chances of survival could have them. Hearing that on the news, that got me.

Another is being bemused at the empty (loo roll) shelves in Sainsbury's (before lockdown).

Having a baby, having to stay in hospital for three days alone and scared. My Mum having to drop off extra clothes for me and the baby and having to confirm it was her through the glass when she came to the maternity ward. It broke my heart. My newborn was meters away and I couldn't hug my Mum or show her my baby.

Early March/late Feb last year, when a long-standing family friend died, of what was suspected to be Covid. Social distancing wasn’t a thing, but some people were beginning to choose to isolate. This lady’s son wrote in her obituary about “this country’s weak and reckless leadership”. He didn’t realise how right he was.

Seeing my grandchildren again last summer when the first lockdown was lifted. Our granddaughter isn't a cuddly one. Our grandson is. Ill never forget that long cuddle when I scooped him in my arms. It was breathtaking. It will be again when we can see them.

Blessed this has happened in the age of tech and Facetime however I can't wait for real time

Reopening a self help group I facilitate in October which is exempt under public health government rules, with strict protocol. Zoom has been amazing through this however not the same.

Frivolously; seeing my hairdresser for the first time last July since the Christmas. I was in tears. I am a total Leo about my hair. I shall do the same again this time

So many moments that I can visualise so clearly but almost as if it was happening to someone else. To name some:
•Putting up my 1st ever AIBU post on MN re Covid & being jumped on for putting it in the wrong place & being overly melodramatic 😟
•Agonising over whether we should pull our kids out of school before 1st lockdown announced as DD is CEV & 2 other DC vulnerable.
•Being in hospital the week before 1st lockdown with DS3 having surgery & feeling incredibly grateful to the NHS but also wishing we were safely at home.
•Watching/listening to the news unfolding & making up a box of goodies for local hospital A&E dept because I just wanted to do SOMETHING but felt totally inadequate.
•Receiving confirmation that DD was (is) CEV & subsequent follow up letters for each lockdown
•Having to go into hospital with DD for a long time far from home because of her complex health issues & feeling scared to go, scared not to.
•First coffee from Pret when they reopened! Walked for miles to clear my head, get that coffee & then head back to the ward again with a hot chocolate for DD.
• Finally getting DD home & all back together as a family
•The camaraderie of rainbows & claps when it felt right to do so but the sadness & relentlessness of the death toll & seeing 1st hand how burned out so many NHS staff are.
•The polarising views/behaviours of people in response to the pandemic & feeling of overwhelming sadness that both "sides' have a point but there are no winners in this.
• On a positive note, enjoying all the time together as a family & appreciating more than ever how lucky we are really.

On a lighter note:
Last March, my toddler sitting up suddenly in his sleep and saying “People all gone, people all gone”.
I had recently been reading the “Anyone remember the Birdie Friend thread” www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3851762-Anyone-remember-the-Birdie-Friend-thread

Another thing- in the weeks before lockdown last year, you couldn't get toilet paper anywhere! I finally ended up using kitchen paper rolls cut in half.

@FairScunnered Wow, how creepy!

Ii had covid in April and was still feeling rotten. The unknowing of what next and isolation was getting to me. I remembeing stood in the kitchen and Biblical by Biffy Clyro came on Absolute Radio and i heard the lines,
It could have been a wonderful year,
Instead we might not make it to the end.
I just sat on the floor in a huddle crying with despair.
I think there were a few songs radios should have took off their playlists.

Love this thread. And I’m only 6 pages in....will keep reading.

Can’t pinpoint 1 moment but I have a few.....

1. The day the schools closed, I cried big fat tears all the way home.

1. Sitting with DH on the sofa and watching the news saying Boris had been moved to intensive care.

1. Feeling like my head might explode trying to homeschool my kids and do a stressful job at the same time. Cried a lot.

1. The pure joy driving up the motorway on 4th July when restrictions were lifted and going to sit in the garden at my Dads for a couple of hours after not seeing him for months. Then saw friends for an hour in another garden before going to stay in a hotel for the night, it felt like so much freedom. All the hotel staff wearing masks and the manager telling us she felt sad that their guests couldn’t see them smiling

Seeing the hospitals in Italy and news reporting UK was 4 weeks behind. That was terrifying and we felt like a tsunami was about to hit us in the nhs. Behind the scenes people were crying and scared.

The socially distanced queues outside supermarkets and people wearing masks inside.

Boris Johnson press conference early march- thought he was going to announce the schools would shut and borders would close and he just asked people to wash their hands. I was gobsmacked.

Schools closing. My child walking out in March and wondering if they would return again that school year. They did but in a bubble with a different classroom and teacher.

Thinking back makes me realise how awful it felt. I'm running out of steam at the moment with energy and resilience, but the vaccine and our knowledge of the disease and how to treat it makes me feel less anxious now. Although the death count and our understanding of long covid scares me.

Negative empty shelves, loo roll panic buying. Saying goodbye to my baby class buddies, end of second lockdown (Scotland).
Positive and negative my son's first birthday, in a car park in the rain, wearing masks. Blowing out candles, abandoning the plates as it was soaking.
Positive our closeness as a family unit.

Sitting with my niece and nephew watching their father pass in hospital away over facetime. He was immuno comprised and caught Covid in April,
fought it off and picked up an opportunistic pathogen which was what killed him in the end. My sister and her eldest were lucky and allowed to be with him at the end. Very difficult to find anything positive after that

Sitting in our front yard on VE Day with the street out. My then 7 year old speaking face to face with other children and the sheer joy that brought (he’s an only child - only children seem to have been forgotten in this children need other children)

Holding my dads hand in hospital and my so giving him a cuddle. He was moved into a home shortly after. He’s declined massively with dementia and it now v violent. I suspect that is the last time me sun will see his grandad. Whoever has managed the visitation of families to care homes should hand their heads in shame it’s been in humane!

Negative - my husband calling me from a visit to his family before lockdown and telling me he had a cough, calling an ambulance for him two weeks later as his sats had dropped to the 80’s and 111 kept telling us if he could talk and didn’t feel breathless he was ok. Paramedics took one look at him and said he’s going in. It was terrifying not being able to go with him or speak to him as it was such an effort. His whole family had it, the relief that they all came through it unscathed and realising how very very lucky we were.

The effect it has had on my teenage boys derived of their education and their friends when they need them the most.

Positives

A love of walking and discovering so many footpaths and lovely walks all close to where I live, my Best Buy is probably the ordnance survey app and my walking boots and Wellies.

Captain Tom

Community spirit, my neighbours have supported me, I have supported them, we’ve danced in the street, had socially distant street parties, sang happy birthday to some who have had big birthdays during lockdown.

My sons 18th which we managed to celebrate on a beautiful day in the garden the day before the rule of six came in.

The relief when my parents were vaccinated

Crying with relief when I went to Aldi at the start of April. DH and DD had been so ill at the time of the first lockdown so we'd been at home for 2 weeks and we were completely out of food. We'd even eaten the Fray Bentos pies. Then I got to Aldi and waited in the queue outside feeling sick with fear that there'd be the empty shelves I'd seen on TV. The relief that there was pretty much normal stock was immense.

Being told in the first two weeks that friend's FIL had died and saying "Oh shit" but feeling jealous because I knew the death in our family was still to come. Thank god it hasn't so far. Genuinely felt like everyone would lose someone important.

The relief when my parents arrived home from India in the middle of March - around the 15th - and the shock that they weren't told to isolate. They popped to Asda on their way home! How surreal it was that they'd been to India and what had changed in the week they'd been away.

The willingness of many to judge others during this Pandemic and the unthinking acceptance of government restrictions and decisions. The way the media and the government whipped up the hysteria and scare mongering will also not be forgotten.

A funny one I thought of was right at the beginning of lockdown 1 I was sorting out the kitchen. I had all the doors open on account of it being boiling hot and some stuff piled in the hall, including a box of crisps. My friend walked past with his DS on their 'one one hour walk' stopped briefly to chat, and I could see the DS looking at the crisps. We were still in the throes of washing the shopping and not really knowing about how much the virus could spread on surfaces. I offered him a packet, and we did the most elaborate logistical transfer of the crisps, involving opening a new multipack from the box because we could guarantee the packets had been 'quarantined' in the big bag, kitchen tongs, antibac spray, handgel etc. It was simultaneously amusing but so surreal and jarring. After all of that the DS said the crisps tasted like alcohol!

A moment that sticks in my mind …. it was end of April/early May and my boss told us all that she was not renewing the lease on her London flat, and would be heading back to Glasgow and wfh there. I remember thinking "bloody hell, we really are in this for the long haul ".

For me, it’s the people who turned nasty. Spying on their friends, family, neighbours, wanting to report, abusing people in thr street. That’s what will stay with me. The deeply unpleasant under belly of society that came to the fore.