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.

For me it was the greediness of some people. I’ve never liked the attitude of looking after number one. The one that sticks out is people buying baby milk then selling it on for a massive profit, what an absolutely vile thing to do.

I figured on pretty early that there was going to be a lockdown so I started buying extra. I went into Spar one evening and it was full of other people buying extra. A shop assistant walked in to start her shift and the look on her face at the amount of people waiting to pay was priceless. She obviously hadn’t realised that we were actually heading for lockdown and what that meant.
The other moment was coming back to work the day after the Xmas break. I went from going into work in the morning, to being sent to WFH in the afternoon, to furloughed by the end of the day.

Seeing the motorway near our house virtually empty in March/April last year. It is never that quiet, even on Christmas day

@feelingdizzy

Telling my teenagers that their Dad had died from Covid .

By far the most awful memory on here, I am so sorry dizzy I can't imagine.

I worked throughout (Covid ward) and although I was scared of contracting it, the worst was driving around after work to get milk and bread and could not get any, anywhere. People had lost their minds. I did worry about feeding my DC then.

Definitely the empty shops at the beginning. I went after work and bumped into a colleague and we just looked at each other in disbelief. Also a perfect stranger and I laughing at the fact that we were both holding shopping lists whilst wandering acres of empty shelves, our plans for xyz reduced to a lone tin of scotch broth soup!

Returning to work from 3 months furlough and being given a letter pass to say we were allowed to travel as supporting the vaccine effort. The idea of being stoped by police on my daily commute was nuts. I never was though.

Spending ages trying to find somewhere I could but compost. I had all my vegetable seedlings bursting out of their starter pots and I couldn't get hold of any compost as online was sold out and no garden centres were open. I finally found one with a farm shop attached so I bought about 10 giant bags of compost with a pack of 6 eggs to justify my journey as essential

Going out for local walks in our secluded valley, during April and May, late in the evening.
It was so beautiful. Clear air, no traffic, no aircraft, no other people.
But an eerie Post- apocalyptic feeling.

I was on a weekend trip with a friend when both our families FaceTimed us one Friday evening to tell us our home country was going into lockdown. We laughed it off and they did too, they said we’ll see you in 2 weeks.

The strange feeling of regularly shopping at a supermarket with no pasta, tomato sauce or toilet roll. One learns those aren’t really essential after a while.

Talking with my family who were in Spain, and stuck in their home for 7 weeks initially. No daily exercise. No gardens. My parents did the occasional outing for work and/or food shopping, but my teenage siblings were not allowed on the street for almost 2 months. One of them had actual physical (mental) difficulties when he tried to go out for the first time. It was distressing hearing about it.

Hugging my best friend in mid-March 2020 and saying ‘I’ll see you next week’. We live in different countries and no one could’ve imagined what was about to come. As I hugged her I knew deep down that it would be a long time until I next saw her. But I honestly never imagined it would’ve been this long. It was my first realisation of how serious this could be.

The first death in our family/friend circle. It’s true that you don’t quite realise it seriously, until a fit and healthy 40 year old you know leaves his primary school children without a father because of this stupid virus. It’s not flu and it’s not a joke - I’m yet to meet a young parent who lost their healthy spouse to flu in their 30/40s.

The one that both saddens me and makes me really happy, is seeing young babies around. I keep thinking that these babies didn’t even exist when Covid started. They’ve never known anything else - but again, they are happy and content, normal smiling babies. Which tells me that life has indeed gone on. Life is still happening, new babies are born everyday and the cycle is continuing. Even though all we heard on the news for months was deaths, deaths, deaths.

Just how vital to life pasta and tinned tomatoes are.

April 2020 - Being told my regular B12 injection at the GP surgery was no longer essential… I persevered and was provided with the items to self inject myself at home… I was terrified not to have it as B12 is crucial in supporting a healthy immune system.

A few moments but mainly peoples behaviour. The panic buying, the shouting fir lockdown/ schools closing / tougher lockdowns etc without actually looking at the bigger picture because you know Covid trumps everything. The scaremongering on here I left for a while that annoyed me . At one point there were posts to say the army will enforce lockdown and will shoot anyone if you leave the house even for walking the dog . People saying your selfish fir going on daily exercise/ walking to the shop daily not wearing a mask . These people need to look at their behaviour and attitude. It’s still happening now people suggesting lockdowns on one news article that is a through away comment. All it does is worry the worriers people need to get a life .

Saying to DP "I'd better check whether the wedding insurance covers pandemics". There's a sentence I never thought I'd say!

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

Lots of posters are making similar comments. Also saying things like they couldn't believe they made their parents wear masks to meet their baby etc. I don’t think people should be so hard on themselves, it was very scary at the time and there was a lot of conflicting advice. I'm sorry you have someone in your life still so anxious. Hopefully time will heal

Oh totally.

I think something that's also being forgotten, is that vulnerable people were, due to the circumstances, in a way far more vulnerable in March 2020 than they are now.

I'll openly admit that I'm one of those idiots who tends to believe they are indestructible, but my partner has panic disorder, and the in-laws are both extremely vulnerable. I wasn't really bothered about the prospect of catching Covid myself (didn't realise I'd actually had it at that point), but what terrified me was the prospect of being asymptomatic, passing it to my partner, and indirectly being responsible for killing the in-laws. So while I wasn't really obsessive about hand-washing and that myself, you can bet that I totally understood, approved of, and did everything I could to advise my partner on how best to go about interacting with the olds and protecting both them and herself, and yes, sometimes that meant standing outside a door, ringing the bell, and leaving, or waving through a window etc. Even immediately prior to vaccination it was still a case of sitting at the opposite side of the room with a window open etc.

I'm happy to take risks with my own health, but no way would I lambast anyone else for being sensible in the face of unknowns when there are obviously vulnerable people involved. That doesn't mean that I don't roll my eyes at people who are doing things that are totally pointless now, even though I understand the fear and paranoia to an extent.

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 had this exact feeling but with the news of the UK allowing me back in. I’d given myself pep talks for months and kept saying ‘how lucky we are to have FaceTime’. But I was a sobbing mess as soon as BBC news announced I could come home.

How society went to shit so quickly. And how paranoid people still are. The damage done is horrific.

Finally managing to buy bread from a local bakery on Deliveroo in the first week of lockdown, after failing to get it anywhere all week (the previous day I was too late and even this bakery sold out of bread before 10am). I don't even usually buy bread weekly but not being able to get any became the focus of my fear and sense of being powerless in those early days.

Getting shopping for local people and realising how many older people live near me who I have never seen and how much this was going to affect them (their churches, groups and volunteering had completely stopped, they were the most vulnerable group so couldn't risk going to the shops, they were going to experience the most bereavement among their peers, imagine how frightening that might be, they weren't online or were struggling to set up their tech (which we helped with) and their families wouldn't or couldn't safely visit). They needed all the things that suddenly stopped and the rest of society was scared of infecting them so they were left.

I feel it’s fading already but those first no food days and the supermarket looked wrecked

@PurpleSapphire

The realisation that most people are selfish. That in a serious situation noone actually gives a flying about anyone else. Trolleys piled high with loo roll, pasta, rice etc. The dramatic depressing ads of empty playgrounds. The online hate, everyone turning on each other.

Actually, not so. The government anticipated people would be much more selfish and refuse to obey lockdown laws or help neighbours etc. Instead people acted like they cared about other people, formed community support groups, volunteered in large numbers, stepped up for vaccination experimental studies etc. The lesson to learn is that people are much, much better in real life than the media/online world makes us out to be.

@ATrifleofFun

I will never forget walking round the local Sainsbury's which had an aura of '28 days later' style panic. The most fascinating thing was what people weren't buying. Even when the world is ending noone wants canned lobster bisque.

Me too re noticing what didn’t sell even in shortage

Plus all bagged bananas gone but all loose still there

For me, I think it was learning that I had leukaemia 1 week into lockdown. Weirdly, I was never too afraid about Covid. But the fact of having to go through chemo etc and our three kids (then 7, 6 and 4) having no respite from the reality of it via school, clubs, playdates etc. was hard to deal with.

We ended up basically "evacuating" the children to DH's parents in the West Country for almost a month. There was just no other way to deal with it - DH is a teacher and still had to work (despite the popular perception, some teachers and schools did provide teaching in Lockdown 1) and I was in hospital most of the time for nearly a month. It was fairly grim.

And I still remember some people (IRL, on here...) telling me how fucking selfish I was, sending children from Plague City to stay with vulnerable elderly GPs - what if they caught Covid and DIED? Never mind the fact that the GPs actually offered to have the kids and make it a little holiday for them (for which I will forever be grateful) and would be quite offended to hear themselves described as elderly and vulnerable...

And quite a few people telling me, as I was in the throes of chemo round 1, that I should be grateful that I had cancer rather than Covid.

Strange times!

Woman walking past me on the river bank. Very very narrow path so not sure what she wanted me to do but she was hell bent on keeping a wide berth, that she slipped and fell in.

With respect crows, I saw the shelves in our local supermarket and they were empty. Nothing to do with the media, I saw it with my own eyes.

And quite a few people telling me, as I was in the throes of chemo round 1, that I should be grateful that I had cancer rather than Covid

Fucking hell. Despicable.

I agree that supermarkets were empty but also with Crows that irl many were the opposite of selfish throughout