As a busy working outdoors kind of family COVID-19 and lockdown impacted our lives immediately. Myself and matthew both work 2 jobs, we are both PA’s for stroke survivors and I also work with patients in gp practices supporting patients with mental health conditions, matthew also works as a youth worker in a community centre during the evenings.
We have four children one who is married with a son of her own, Our two boys who play football one who was actually in Spain living as lockdown hit and a youngest daughter who is heavily into dancing and trains most days. As you can imagine there was a panic to get our 16 year old son Mal home from Spain and within 12 hours of booking a flight he was sat in our living room, this had to be done as lockdown in Spain was imminent. Jakes football had stopped the week before and Ruby’s dancing stopped the weekend before lockdown hit. So going from such busy lifestyles to practically nothing over night was the strangest thing ever.
Our PA work saw us having to be more inventive and supporting our employers in a different way, Matthew’s youth centre closed so he was furloughed and my job in the gp practices continued although one week in practice and one week from home alternating and operating via telephone appointments.
All of a sudden we had 5 of us at home with lots of energy and with most of us having nothing to do. Within a few days Matthew, Jake and Mal had made a gym area in the garden so they could keep up their fitness, I had set up an office at home to work and Ruby had turned our kitchen into her very own dance studio for her online classes.
In the beginning the fear to leave home was real and we did not go anywhere unless for work and Matthew who we delegated to do the super market shops when we were desperate.
It was hard going from taking Julie my lovely employer out for coffee, cinema, theatre and shopping and lunches to having to sit on her front steps to chat and keep her company delivering groceries and home made cakes (which she loved by the way)!!! This new way of support was hard!!! Delivering her birthday card, cake and flowers and singing happy birthday at a socially distance of 2 metres so we didn’t have to wear face masks!!
We sat in our tiny square of a front garden to celebrate VE Day in a tea party style. Matthew and the children went out daily for walks, jogs, runs and bike rides, although those early days I was too afraid to go anywhere apart from work and Julie’s due to me being a diabetic! It was the end of May/beginning of June before I thought I was going to crack up if I didn’t do something, so we took our first family walk over to jersey marine beach! It felt amazing to be out and spend time together, from then on we went nearly every evening all together.
June the 6th was my birthday and we had our first take out food, fish and chips from shillingfords that is all I wanted for my birthday treat, I saw my daughter, son in law and grandson for the first time in the flesh since the beginning of lockdown and they joined us in the rain in the garden. Not ideal but we were together!! We then saw the lovely stroke group on zoom for a Saturday night game and lots of happy birthday wishes. June and July pretty much rolled into one and we plodded along through lockdown as best we could like everybody else! We are now end of July and restrictions are being lifted, we are slowly adjusting to getting back to some sort of normality although very cautiously.
We had our first day trip out of area as a family last weekend to our favourite place Tenby! We walked around the town, done some fishing and yep you guessed it ate chips on the beach. I am sat here in Pembrey camping in our little camper van and awning in a quiet corner watching the world go by as write this today. This pandemic has impacted the whole world, nothing we took for granted will ever be the same again. COVID-19 has not gone away and by the looks of it is here to stay for the foreseeable future, however we have to take responsibility for our own safety, health and well-being, we have to start trying to get out and back to some sort of normality, we as a family and the community as a whole have got through the worst of it now hopefully.
I have to admit I quite enjoyed pressing the pause button on the outside world for a while and spending time in our safe little bubble at home, but we can not do this for ever. so as I sit here in my bubble with my family if I can give any advice to any of you at this time, it would be to do what feels right for you, do what you have to do for your own mental health and well-being, don’t be pushed in to doing anything you don’t want to do.
Take it slow and steady and at your own pace but please try and get out for some fresh air and exercise wherever you feel it is safe to do it, as it’s the walking and talking with my family by my side that got me and them through this global pandemic and very frightening time.
