A decade in isolation?

...and a lifetime of implications.

A whole lot of ‘not’.

It occurred to me today that by the time we had emerged from the UK Covid ‘lockdowns’ , my children had spent around 1/5 to 1/6 of their lives in social isolation. Living in ‘bubbles’ and not going to school. Not travelling, nor participating in sport or socialising with friends. Not interacting with peers, taking public transport, going to the cinema or hanging out in McDonalds. Not doing school plays, singing in choirs, playing music. A whole lot of ‘not’.

If I had spent that proportion of my life with those restrictions, that would be a decade in social isolation.

Never have I been more grateful that Taz and Fiver had each other than in 2020.

Looking back in anger

The ‘Covid’ years have very much been on my mind this week. At the weekend I took Taz for her Covid booster as she is ‘high risk’. As I drove into the vaccination centre, there was a fairly cheerless man in hi-vis needlessly directing me towards spaces in the totally empty car park. He then directed me towards the ‘no-queue’ where we waited zero minutes for our turn. Starkly different to the last time I had been to this village-hall-come-medical-clinic.

Back then I had to fight my way in, as cars were queued around the block and online booking systems were overwhelmed. Appointments weren’t available, and this very same pop-up clinic was mobbed. We were counted in by the army of helpers from our fully masked socially distanced places. Once numbers were reached, the rest of the queue would be turned away. I just made it. Right now I can’t even remember why it felt so critical to get vaccinated that week, I just remember the relief at being ‘on the list’.

Vaccination supplies were low, brands were changing, misinformation and panic was rife. The world was an extraordinarily scary place, even down to our local village hall. We were all scrambling to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our livelihoods from something we didn’t even understand whether we needed protecting from.

Now, in 2023, as the Covid enquiry rumbles on in the news - casting doubt on political decisions made, and shining a deeply unfavourable light on those in power at the time - many people will understandably turn to anger.

Those that weren’t eligible for ‘furlough’ or whose businesses were decimated. Those who couldn’t get much needed hospital treatment for non-Covid related conditions. Those who couldn’t visit sick and dying relatives or attend funerals. Those who gave birth alone. Those who lost loved ones or have experienced long lasting life-impacting changes through contracting the virus themselves. Those whose mental health was unable to withstand the impacts of isolation, and so many more. Those for whom enforcements came too late, too early, or went on for too long.

The debate and the analysis will be unravelling for years.

Photo by Keenan Constance on Unsplash

The joy of a green space

Whilst we were very lucky in my family, emerging relatively unscathed from major impacts; writing about Taz’s gymnastics championships last weekend made me reflect on what our teenagers missed out on in terms of first major sporting events, first trips abroad with school, travelling with friends…How exercise was confined to the house and garden, and when permitted, the park within half a mile of our home. (We are so blessed to have close access to green space).

It will be interesting to see if and how this two-year delay in social development ripples upwards through their lifetimes.

Again, I’m sure this will be studied ad infinitum.

A box of surprises

Today, whilst looking for something to support an article on a completely different topic in my chaotic and nonsensical Dropbox folders (argh), I came across a folder entitled ‘Christmas 2020’, within which I had stored some photos of that first lockdown year. Another vivid reminder of those times.

I tentatively opened it, and was quite astonished at what I found. It reminded me that for all that my girls missed out on, they also experienced things that they otherwise never would have. If I had still been working out of the house full time, and they had been at school, I feel pretty sure that none of this would have happened:

• camping in the garden

• raising chickens

• learning to sew

• home fitness

• random contortionism

• extreme dog loving

• painting (with Bob Ross no less)

• wild hair dying

• spectacular baking

• a campervan Conversion (yep full on welding and everything)

  …the list goes on…

  

  

  

I left my job during lockdown to become a writer. Once I’d stepped off the wheel, I knew I could never get back on, and that enabled myself, Taz and Fiver to have the experiences that we did. Amidst all of this, however, and almost forgotten was the other side of our own family experience. Hidden in our collective memory just as this one photo was hidden in that folder. Himself as a front line worker.

The fear, the exhaustion, the bewilderment and the relentlessness etched on his face as he headed to work not knowing what the day would bring - body recovery, vaccinations, ambulance driver assist. Setting up refrigerated tents as surplus morgues, outreach to homeless people and sex workers. Having to remove his clothing on the doorstep before he could come back into the house. Back into the world of chickens running around pooping on the floor, Bob Ross paintings and new creations. The world of whirling dervishes excitedly showing off their handmade dresses and invented hairstyles before producing home made cakes and demonstrating how they could fold themselves into a tiny cardboard box. The world where I needed adult contact and he needed to decompress.

Where do you even begin?

Just a slice of life

For us adults, this was not a fifth or a sixth of our lives, just a small slice. Small enough to brush over it as ‘just another year’, yet one that may well take several of our remaining years to really process. Whereas my children now live in their ‘new’ moment’, I wonder how and when our adult brains will ever really catch up…

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Two years on, I wonder what your reflections are on those times?

I’d love to hear 💕🙏

Love & lemons 🍋

Em xx