What one moment will always stay with you from this?

[Ostryga]

Mine was realising panic shopping was everywhere, and that I needed to buy an entire food shop for Dd and I before lockdown.

I cried when I found a shop with chicken and milk.

The fear I felt of the virus at that time, and also not being able to make sure we had food is something I hope to never repeat.

Watching the paramedics get into their PPE after my mum collapsed and stopped breathing.

She died.

(Not down to the paramedics)

to all who have lost someone. As a family we are still waiting to 'celebrate ' the life if a much missed relative.

For me wanting my student DS to.return home from university and they went on longer than most...paramedic degree.

He returned for a.month then went back to help out. Him and a number of his peers got Covid.
Now has long covid.
I'm both proud and so angry at the poor handling of the whole pandemic.....we had the fortunate position of time to slow the infection and for weeks the agony of watching the poor decisions obvious to anyone with half a brain was horrific. Blood on their hands.

These texts. And sitting looking at the "boris box" of food, reading the letter and thinking "they really don't want us to go outside"

Announcing to dd that her GCSEs had been cancelled, after months of revision 😢

• early-April 2030, staying up until 3am because I couldn’t sleep overanalysing news and statistics. Making myself go to bed, and as I walked through to the hallway I looked outside and came face to face with an ambulance driver in full PPE (an unusual sight at the time) taking our neighbour to hospital. Because of the layout of our house and shared drive he was only about 6ft away from me and we locked eyes. He looked so scared and exhausted.

• literally begging the kids school not to use MS Teams as the only method of communication, because our broadband was too bad for it to work

• a particular walk through the fields with the kids when it suddenly dawned on me that they thought this was normal, and realising that was a short term blessing and a long term curse

• attending a friends funeral as a “live-streamed scheduled event” and how soulless it was

• sitting on the freezing ground under a tree in my parents driveway trying to talk to them through a closed window, pretending I wasn’t cold

• realising how absolutely amazing the police were when they came to help out an elderly neighbour

Sorry that was in poor taste as I hadn't RTFT. My sincere condolences to all who have suffered physically or lost someone

@PlinkPlankPlunk

The thing I’ll NEVER forget (fortunately for me, a more positive one) is crying with relief when I heard in January that my parents had been given their first jabs.

I’d managed to see them in the summer, albeit still with a lot of restrictions, and knew I wouldn’t see them again for a long time. I thought I’d been very stoic about it all and was coping well, and then I got that text. Lying on my bed sobbing was not my finest hour but it certainly was cathartic

I cried when my siblings all finally got their first jabs. They live in another country with such a slow roll out and really high cases - they are all older than me and I miss them so much and was so worried about them getting sick. It was such a wonderful relief to know they were on their way to protection. I cannot wait to travel and see them again (currently on the red list so I can't) they've never met my daughter and I've never met my grand nephew - video calling can only do so much.

Probably when the car broke down during first lockdown and got told by the garage that we weren't key workers (we are) so they couldn't fix it for us 😆 I was so panicked at how we were going to get to work (DH and I are colleagues so just share this one car). Luckily not all garages were as difficult and fixed it for us

@QueenofKattegat

grocery staples particularly long life items back in February 2020 wearing a makeshift hazmat suit complete with head gear, mask and gloves

Is this a joke? Shopping in a hazmat suit?

If only it was a joke like the pandemic is and so many lost souls is a joke. No this was a serious over the top statement in a society (core central London by the way!) where people even today are blasé and indifferent. What I wore was modelled on what I saw as shown on media clips from fiends based in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Tokyo of things they seen coming out of mainland Chinese media. I wore a makeshift hazmat suit not an actual hazmat suit! I grabbed a one piece onesie hooded shell suit garment and added a mask and gloves. A bit like Ghostbusters etc. As an aside but coincidentally I do actually have a full on emergency university air squadron bio nuclear warfare suit too but can’t locate the head gear filter mask part. This was gifted by a best friend who used to fly solo to train as a pilot skipping class when we were all supposed to be at small group tutorial supervision or in lectures in exchange for my notes.

This Covid pandemic is no joke and folks need to take it seriously - so ensure for your own health and safety that you are vaccinated and use all common sense risk mitigation measures as it all helps. The UK has already recorded 0.1-0.2 million excess Covid comorbidities and this will perpetuate if the virus is not contained and continue to super spread circulate and mutate. We need to all do whatever it takes to prevent further lost of lives and livelihoods and it’s also a bit of a mental challenge for some and unfair to young children caught up in all this mess which they may need to ultimately pay for.

Mine is definitely a minor one when reading others.. 😔

Having to tell students that their beloved teacher had died of covid. Attending her funeral remotely and watching her kids and husband in tears and not being able to hug them.

Feeling like I was living in 2 v different worlds. One where I queued for food, socially distanced and wore a mask. And my working life where I was squashed into small unventilated rooms with no one wearing a mask. Not a chance of social distancing. December was v scary.

Writing and marking exams for students to sit as central exams had been cancelled. On top of teaching in class and remotely at the same time. And the constant removal of close contact kids on a daily basis.

Finding out I've had Covid from an antibody test when I've done hundreds of LFTs and none have ever been positive. And feeling v v lucky I never knew.

And I'll never forget the fun you can have remote teaching because kids are amazing.

Not being able to hug my mum for a year and doing Christmas via zoom

When my dear friend died. She didn't have covid but was due a heart operation that was cancelled, leading to her death.

When I realised I was living though a period of history that will be talked about in the future and studied by school children.

I’m a teacher and was sent home for a week before the schools closed as I had a shocking cough. I felt so helpless but I was getting lots of updates about the dwindling numbers of pupils.
We set up lots of online communications so I was able to sort that out from home. We were so sure it was going to be over soon.

I remember when the lockdown was announced and crying because it seemed so final.

I also remember when it was announced that year one children would be going back. I’m a year one teacher and that was the first I’d heard of it.

Standing outside in the pouring rain having a staff meeting to decide that we didn’t feel it was safe to reopen the school in January.

As for shopping I’m lucky and organised. I always have enough food in for two weeks, but I’m lucky that I have the space and money. This meant that I could send my regular Ocado orders to my parents.

If only it was a joke like the pandemic is and so many lost souls is a joke. No this was a serious over the top statement in a society (core central London by the way!) where people even today are blasé and indifferent. What I wore was modelled on what I saw as shown on media clips from fiends based in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Tokyo of things they seen coming out of mainland Chinese media. I wore a makeshift hazmat suit not an actual hazmat suit! I grabbed a one piece onesie hooded shell suit garment and added a mask and gloves. A bit like Ghostbusters etc. As an aside but coincidentally I do actually have a full on emergency university air squadron bio nuclear warfare suit too but can’t locate the head gear filter mask part. This was gifted by a best friend who used to fly solo to train as a pilot

Noooo you're messing with us😁

Have you listened to Prepper with Sue Johnston on Radio 4? I think you'd like it.

That picture of the elderly gentleman in an empty shopping aisle holding his shopping list.

It was in most the papers.. it made me cry.

Not being able to get a loaf of bread for 3 months

I actually prepped late January seeing the news and being CEV, myself and both teens are coeliac and I assumed our food would be scare and it was, I was allocated a delivery slot after 4 weeks but it took 3 months before we could get gluten free bread or flour

DH and both teens are autistic and anxious, they look to me on these occasions as a retired theatre nurse, it’s been a long 18 months keeping their mental health stable, DH attempted suicide due to work pressures but fortunately I caught him but this added to the teens anxiety

One beautiful day in it all was DD’s lockdown 18th birthday, there was no pressure for her to conform and her day was magical from start to finish for her.

It took months of work and planning which kept me occupied during early lockdown and I can now make a 4 layer gluten free iced celebration cake to professional standards which is just as well as we have a second 18th this year

The beautifully quiet roads in March/April last year.

how I found my tribe on FB. we had a great time posting stupid memes and kept each other going.

also I loved lockdowns and not having to do schoolruns.

those are the things I want to remember

New Years Eve. Just us and our Uni aged kids, who usually would have been out with friends. We made cocktails, played Taskmaster, board games and did Wii dance, and went to bed at 2am having laughed more than I'll ever need. I'll treasure that memory 😊

The conga lines on VE Day in the middle of lockdown

@DarceyDashwood

I think the surrealness of the school drop off on that last day they were in school last March before lockdown. The weird atmosphere at the gates and no one really knowing what was coming. Never would have believed it would be 3 months until they were back in school.

Yes this for me too. I remember walking them there and thinking what a privilege is was to be taking my kids to school, knowing we were about to lose that and feeling absolutely terrified about what was to come.

When some could go but not all, seeing children skip past to school with their friends which felt so contrasting to our situation stuck at home.

Hearing that my lovely neighbour had passed away from Covid, just three weeks after going into hospital.