Which specific moment from this will stay with you forever?

[RosieLemonade]

Positive or negative.

Beautiful....a plethora of auto corrects and misstypes there ...sorry cold here and fingers stiff

Well done SabrinaTheMiddleAgedBitch

The feeling of dread from end of Feb 2020 that this was going to be something really bad.
The announcement of the first lockdown.
The announcement of the cancellation of exams and seeing DD utterly lost going from full on study to a limbo nothingness overnight.
The exam results fiasco and how poorly students were treated.
Dominic Cummings

Watching my DD sleep peacefully as the world outside went mad. Blissful ignorance - made me happy and sad at the same time.

January 2020 - me following the news in China on the Guardian website at work. Commenting that I was concerned to a co-worker, who told me I needed anxiety management and how ridiculous I was being. Fuck you Dave! Fuck you.

A week before lockdown in March talking to a colleague in work who was chilled after seeing two women fighting over toilet roll in the supermarket.
My seven year old, getting up at 6am and dressing himself in his school uniform because he was so excited to go back into school in July for one day a week. It broke my heart to realise how much he had missed it.

Sitting in my car waiting to pick my little one up from nursery as Boris announced exams were cancelled - made me realise that I was unlikely to ever see my lovely year eleven tutor group again

Doing the weekly food shop in Sainsbury's in early March. It seemed like a normal Saturday but there was a weird feeling in the air like hushed panic. The shelves looked largely normal until you looked for multi-purpose spray, paracetamol, loo roll, hand sanitiser or flour and there was none to be found. I feel like half the people were panic buying and the other half were bemused watching the panic buyers and thinking they were being overly anxious.

How scared I was when we were still going to work (teachers) but other countries had locked down by that point. Then the weirdness of clearing out all my stuff that I'd need to work from home.

The anxiety linked to stupid people panic buying and worrying I wouldn't be able to feed my kids as a result.

Crying whilst watching the news, not knowing what was going to happen.

Watching Boris' first lockdown broadcast telling us all to stay at home.

Going for my daily walk and being amazed at how empty the streets were of traffic.

This thread has had me tears! It reminds me of all the big and small losses we've suffered. I think human resilience is a truly amazing thing.

Some of the moments that stand out for me.

1. Having to tell my son we couldn't see family at Christmas (having not seen them since the summer due to local lockdown). He cried solidly for what felt like forever. I've had to disappoint him over and over, as we all have, since last March but that was the worst one.
2. Like lots of others, the last day of school in March. Trying to stay positive but crying as soon as the kids had gone in.
3. Not being allowed to buy three cans of soup in Tesco.
4. Andrea Bocelli singing Amazing Grace in Milan.
5. Walking past a row a blossom covered trees every day in spring. Walking past the same trees covered in snow in January.
6. Walking into John Lewis in December and being completely excited and overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle.
7. Being in Amsterdam as they announced all restaurants and bars were to shut immediately. We headed to a shop to buy a drink and a snack. For some reason the shop didn't take MasterCard our and a kind Dutch man offered to buy our food for us.

Finding flour in Aldi for the first time in about a month. I am not exaggerating when I say I got a little bit teary.

I had to give myself a stern talking to after realising I was almost crying over groceries....

When my mum was stranded on a cruise ship at the beginning of a pandemic and was so worried and then I got sick myself. But my family wouldn't isolate because they thought I was exaggerating / imagining. That was a rough couple of weeks. Then, my friends DH dying and attending an incredibly emotional online funeral.

@MiddleParking

The worst, most anxiety-inducing bit for me was the empty supermarket shelves right at the start.

I felt this too. I think this was the first time I thought, shit this is bad. I got Covid a couple of months later, which wasn’t nice, but the empty shelves was for me the first big sign.

My ex passing away 1st December, watching my 3 older children grieving from their respective homes and not being able to be with them.

Oh and queuing up in the supermarket car park then shopping without masks as they hadn't been introduced. People weren't used to social distancing and there wasn't any one way system or screens etc in place. There was no music on in the shops and it was sombre and surreal as fuck.

I live in France.

I remember watching Macron's announcement of the first lockdown. Schools had already closed and we let the DC watch the news for the first time so they'd understand. The shock at having to have papers to be allowed out and then a couple of weeks later being limited to 1km from our flat.

That first week bursting into tears during an executive committee on teams (fortunately muted and no camera) because the DC just would NOT stop pestering me. DH was locked in a bedroom trying to save his business so I was juggling FT work and homeschooling 2 primary school DC whose school was sending home HOURS of work to do daily and wouldn't accept any reason for DC not doing it.

My 9 year old being diagnosed with ADHD and dyspraxia, totally unexpectedly.

Only being able to see my dying dad through a window and him having no idea who I was (brain tumour). Having to choose the 30 people who’d be allowed to attend his funeral. Not being allowed to touch his coffin or hug anyone at his funeral. And we were ‘lucky’, we could have 30 to the funeral and 15 to the wake.

Sitting down to a long lunch every day with DS and DH The slower pace of life, the empty skies. The beautiful weather in the first lockdown, taking hours-long walks through the park.

What SingToTheSky said, about the initial announcement from Boris.

And then, the next month, Boris himself caught the virus, as he said himself "It could have gone either way". Scary, his partner Carrie caught the virus too, although it sounded as though the symptoms were milder.

Thank Heaven for this vaccine, I haven't had mine yet, but would give a week's wages for it.

Celebrating our daughter's wedding in a field - just the bride and groom and both sets of parents. Her friends had set out food and decorations because they wanted her to have a proper "reception experience" even though they could not be with us.

A news report from Italyl last March which showed a ward full of elderly men who were wearing breathing masks. Several of them looked very like my Dad and it hit me like a ton of bricks that if my parents got covid I could lose both of them.

The first lockdown being utter bliss.

When my friend text me to say goodbye. He’d got Covid on returning from Benidorm. He had a DNR put in place because of underlying problems and had been told he wouldn’t survive. He was 56.
I promised to look out for his wife He was a larger than life character and me and hubby miss him so much

Bad

• the moment I woke up and saw the text message on my phone letting me know I had tested positive. (Very very bad)
• the first press conference where Boris said loved ones would die.
• going to a drive through test centre for the first time and seeing tents and army personnel in full PPE. It felt like I was in a sci fi movie but the understanding that this was now our actual real life.

Good

• recovering from having Coronavirus. I'm not quite there yet but feeling stronger each day.
• the moment they announced there was a vaccine that worked.
• I actually enjoyed going on family walks to new places last Spring and Summer.
• We did a lockdown doorstep photo last summer and it is actually a very natural, happy family photo that I really like.

Positives

Hearing I’d got an Ed Psych doctorate interview and feeling a rush of joy - then realising how long it had been since I’d felt joy 🥲

Going camping last summer with all the cousins - fires every night with my DSIL and DBIL, simple pleasures.

VE Day and having a bbq in the front garden - other neighbours doing the same. So delightfully weird.

Negatives

When my daughter burst into tears near the end of term in lockdown 1 over missing friends. She’d held things together and was so cheerful up to that point.

Thinking about the many kids I can actually put names to who will be suffering miserably with each lockdown. Not all take up the vulnerable place offer 😔

Also, on a less personal note, I won't forget the press conference where the government announced that they were closing schools and cancelling GCSEs and A-levels. It was the moment when I started to realise that this would impact people's lives more than any other event in my lifetime.