Coronavirus in ROI/NI part 2

[Zantedeschia]

Following on from the other thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/craicnet/3834552-Coronavirus-in-Ireland-N-Ireland?pg=40&order=

I seem to be spending more money now than I do when I can go to the shops. Online shopping and boredom is a terrible combination. Add to that depression and anxiety and you have credit card debt.
Glorious day here today, got out for my 5k run in a 2k radius. Met a lot of people out and about all at a safe distance of course. Normally you wouldnt see anyone in my little town. It's nice to see people.

Does anyone have any experience if funerals since the lockdown? Dh's uncle passed away yesterday and it's very odd not to be down with the family.

Should have said, it wasn't c19 related, it was bastard cancer.

A colleague of mine lost their daughter. (Again - not covid related, but long term illness which finally took her aged 20.) They had a small family funeral in their own home - just parents, grandparents and siblings along with the minister in the house. A small number of other family members were able to be in the garden socially distanced from each other. I don’t know if they had a cremation or burial - I didn’t want to ask.

Heard this weekend of two more friends who have lost family members. (One is the mother of my friend//grandmother of my DC’s friend) I haven’t heard yet what the arrangements are.

Another friend also lost her MIL last week (also not covid related) but they are not in Ireland so not sure if their experience is relevant. My friend and her DH live on mainland Scotland, but her MIL lived on one of the islands. Her DH and his sibling (Also lived on mainland close to friend) have met up in the street to discuss arrangements while still keeping their distance from each other. (They only live about 10min walk from each other) None of them can obviously travel to the islands right now so won’t be able to be at a funeral even if they have one. Just heartbroken for them.

Local funeral, not Covid related.
Anyone looking to support the family lined the street of the town, at 2m distance apart.
I thought it was lovely- people still turning out and supporting a grieving family. .

Mind you, it helped that it wasn't raining!

My sil was very ill for many ears from childhood - pils decided to have a private funeral from the house, with a priest saying mass in the living room, a few years ago. It was actually very meaningful, just close family.
Wider family went to the burial, and for tea and sandwiches - not the standard funeral, but it seemed to work.
I cant believe Easter has been and gone.

@eggandonion I know, doesn't feel like it, doesn't feel like we've had St. Patrick's day either. Every day is sort of the same now.

That happened locally here too Earl

Relations of Dh were out at their gate on Easter Sunday. The local priest drove around the parish blessing the houses.

Sounds very Father Ted but DH's cousin is not particularly holy and they are a young family, she found it very moving, there was a lot of good feeling about it locally.

That sounds lovely Earl, a real harkening back to the best parts traditional Ireland and mass at home sounds like an incredibly special way to mark a loved one's passing. I love the idea of drive by blessing too. It amazing how much ceremony means to us, even when we're committed agnostics.

That was lovely, Earl. I rarely go to Mass and didn't get DC baptised, but sometimes, not often really, but the odd time, I go at Easter. I did the shine a light thing at 9pm and it reminded me of Holy Saturday Mass as a child with my parents where the church would be pitch dark and the priest would light the one candle and all the candles would be lit from that. It was quite impressive.

I have been wondering if Covid will see people returning to religion a bit when it becomes possible to go. Funny that Catholicism held on so strongly across the country compared to the Irish language.

One of my local pharmacies has masks and gloves and a large range of hand sanitizer. I have a small Supervalu and an Aldi near enough and I haven't bothered driving as far as Tesco or Dunnes. Things come and go from the shelves, usually there are one or two things I can't get but they are there when I go the next time. I haven't seen any panic buying since the schools closing - though I avoided the shops when the stricter measures came in because I figured it would be busy.

Aldi were doing queues outside coming up to the weekend, the first time I saw it I didn't bother going in, but I did on Saturday and the queue moved quickly and it was bliss inside with the limited numbers. The Supervalu is small so it can feel a bit stressful in the aisles as they are narrow.

Yes, it was lovely. It was lump in the throat stuff.

I was listening to Ian Robertson talking on the Atlantic Fellows podcast today; and he mentioned about the power of rituals.

We all look for the familiarity of rituals when we feel afraid or anxious.
Which is why (IMO) Irish funerals work...there's a predictable sequence of events, and it doesn't matter how distraught you are, the sequence plods along. And that sequence and ritual is soothing because you dont have to think about it. You know your role, and people who turn up to show support, know their role also.

If you're Irish, you know why the locals line the street. You know that you will do the same for them.

I dont think we'll see a "return to religion" or Catholicism. But, maybe, more of a commitment to fostering local connections.
I can hope so, though I'm very cynical that things will go back to how they were, very quickly.

Makes me think about when people were hit by plagues and famines and what not in less scientific times. No wonder religions are so popular.

I saw a meme on a mainland UK friend's FB asking people to return to the tradition of pausing out of respect when you see a hearse - then it popped up on an Irish FB group I'm a member of. Cue zillions of comments saying I thought everyone did this anyway...

It was a weird Easter. I live over a hundred miles from my DM. She was here at the beginning of March but I don't know when I'll see her again or if it'll be possible to do more than talk outside. She's 78. Healthy for her age but obviously 78 is 78.

It was just strange to have the day marked only by Easter eggs and a nicer dinner than usual. We watched some of that Andrea Bocelli concert and I just cried through it.

My DH isn't the best at making occasions special (dysfunctional family) so it's usually up to me to do the traditional thing that we would have had growing up. My heart really wasn't in it yesterday, and I didn't do any of the tatty Easter "art" or decorate eggs or anything either that DC do in school sometimes. I think I'm feeling lonely because I've relied a lot on DS having school and his own friends for playing and now he just has me. DH makes noises every now and then about doing something with him but we're a whole month of school being closed and there has been zero done.

There's my offloading done!

@Apileofballyhoo sorry to hear that. Myself and my son are going through a hard time. Have been for a few years now. He moved out of home at 18. We used to be so close but he's shut me out, not just me but my whole family too. He wont send me pictures of my Grandchild, he wont answer when I try to call him. No way would he do a video chat.
I'm so sad all the time now. He didn't even contact us to happy Easter, none of us. Being in Lockdown has made it harder, I thought he might realise how silly it is under current circumstances, I mean anyone of us could catch it and be unlucky enough to die but he says it's just an excuse not to see him, we barely showed any interest in them apparently.
Not true, he lives nearly an hour away it's not like he's down the road and I can pop in after work. I work long hours too.
Sorry for the rant.

blinked thanks for the sympathy. Your situation sounds awful. Can you send anything by post to your grandchild? Would it be passed on? Is he or she old enough to read or look at pictures or know you sent him something? We have little contact with DH's parents (pre corona and now even less) but DS doesn't miss them and I assume they don't miss him either. He misses my mother, even though she lives much further away, he saw far more of her. I'd love if she was just an hour away.

This virus makes everything so much harder and kind of throws a spotlight on things that were just papered over. Sending you unmumsnetty hugs as they say. I think that's the first time I've done that!

Iblinked, I'm sorry about your situation, my parents died when I was young and I was away from home - you don't know what you've got till its gone, I hope your ds sees sense for both your sakes. My dh also had a dysfunctional childhood, he was raised as an only child by grandparents, who also had teenage children at home, so he became a pet. As a result he can be selfish - at times he was great with the kids, at times couldn't be bothered.
My ds has a strained relationship with his mother, but he joined in mass mourning when his father died. I think Ireland often does funeral very well, because the papered over cracks are finally polyfillaed! It would be better if they were properly fixed.

I met a lady who must be 80 out for a walk, recently widowed and living alone with a small barky dog. Mumsnet would not approve.
Look after yourselves ladies, positive vibes!

www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-52277855

How on earth can the CMO of NI not be across the details of its PPE order or aware of any quality issues? I would have thought it was essential for him to be aware of this to do his job!

There seems to be an acceptance now that UK statistics are under reported.
Mary Lou is now recovering, I wonder is she face timing Boris to discuss their illness, my MIL always likes a good illness chat. That aside, I think it is difficult to grasp the figures - our town has 15k inhabitants, our street has about 100 is the way I do it. But 'knowing' people like Prince Charles and Mary Lou who must have met hundreds of people shows the importance of staying at home.

@eggandonion I meet people of all ages out walking, it's good for their mental health. Then again we do live in the country, I might meet 3/4 people on my walk around the town so not that many. Sometimes I dont meet anyone.
@Apileofballyhoo my Grandchild is just a baby she's only 3 months old.
I've bought her loads of stuff but my DS says it's not an excuse to not see the baby. I have actually seen her a lot, sometimes though I have to do some C.P.D. for work at the weekend. Anyway as I read recently, "it is what it is and that's all it is."
Going to make some chocolate chip cookies. I made some yesterday but I ate them all. They were lovely. Especially when they are still warm from the oven.
DS used to love them from the oven. He used to nearly burn his mouth trying to eat them without waiting for them to cool

The best time to eat baked things is straight from the oven!

Anything with melted chocolate is lethal from the oven, you know it but you still do it!
We were supposed to see a baby who was born just after Christmas last month - she was slightly early so is three months ish now. We saw a photo at the weekend instead. Things speed up then, when they grow out of the first lot of clothes. I hope you can sort ds out, mine is in Dublin and I miss him!

It's good to see Mary Lou is getting better but wasn't her child in the first school to close with a case?

I remember seeing her on tv about a week after the school closed and thinking surely she should be isolating?

Her two kids were in th first school but because she hadn't met the child herself and her kids weren't sick, she wasn't a close contact. She was once removed. So she didn't have to isolate.

She was tested on 28th March so I'd say she picked it up elsewhere anyway as it was a bit on the outside edge of time to have picked it up from the kids. She was out and about a fair bit.

She definitely got no preferential treatment with the results, that's for sure!

Her kids did isolate though, when that kid got sick. I heard her on the radio talking about how bored they were. This was way back at the start when isolating was still a rarity.

I cant take Mary Lou seriously. I always see her in the stupid documentary she did for tv3 I think, where she was interviewed doing her shopping in Tesco. I remember laughing at that. Everytime she's on TV I just see her reaching for the cornflakes in Tesco. (I dont actually remember if it was Tesco or not)