Corona Diaries

Ally

“…none of us had experienced anything like this before and we were and still are, in uncharted territory.”

Background Information

Female, aged 55-64, Self-employed Researcher and Consultant, South Wales, White, Married,

Heterosexual, Four adult children.

March 2020 – August 2021

My first memory of note was a lunch time meet I had with my 29 year old son in London on 10 th March 2020.

We met in the Crypt café underneath St Martins-in-the-Field in Trafalgar Square. A favourite spot. I had been

visiting my family on the south coast of England and we meet for lunch as I passed through London on my

way home to south Wales. My son works in the international news industry and was very up to date on what

was happening with the virus globally as well as in the UK. I was not. I had been out of the country for much

of the preceding month on holidays in Malaysia – I remember that when we flew out to Malaysia in early

February 2020 we were literally heading towards the virus as it was ripping through China and east Asia and

then by the time we returned to the UK in March, CV-19 (as it was first termed) had arrived on European

shores and we were soon to see those shocking images of hospitals in northern Italy struggling to cope with

the onslaught of patients sick with this deadly respiratory virus.

Back to the lunch time meet with my son in March 2020….He advised me that what was about to happen to

us in the UK now the virus was here was unprecedented, that despite my 3 score years I probably had not

seen anything like what was about to happen – had I?

How right he was – none of us had experienced anything like this before and we were and still are, in

uncharted territory.

As time went on and the first lockdown was announced less than two weeks later on the 23rd March 2020 I

remember being terrified that Boris Johnson and his cabinet of Brexiteers – chosen for their support for Brexit

rather than their competences – would be in charge of things that would have a direct impact on me and my

family and friend’s health and survival. How did we end up with such a buffoon running our government?

Politically in the UK the results of the EU Referendum caused havoc and for the three plus years preceding

the pandemic we were in total disarray as a country. We were not in a strong place to be dealing with a global

pandemic. How grateful I was at this time to see Boris flanked by Chris Whitty and Patrick Valance at the

nightly Downing Street press conferences – at least our PM was listening to the advice of scientists who knew

what they were talking about. Boris’ own brush with Covid was upsetting – when he was taken into intensive

care in April the country was on tenterhooks. I was of course pleased that he survived but also pleased that

he would surely now have to take this pandemic seriously and not listen to any whacky ideas coming from

his unelected Vote Leave advisers including Dominic Cummings.

Cummings of course is now discredited and although I have no doubt that his recent allegations about how

Boris behaved in these early months of managing the pandemic are mostly true (including his apparent

comments about those over 80 not being so important) unfortunately the country was not listening as by then

Boris was riding the Vaccine Bounce. The impressive vaccine programme delivered by our NHS – the very

NHS that Boris has spent most of his political life trying to privatise and then belittles by offering them a

measly 1% pay rise! While all his mates reap the benefits of relaxations on procurement to turn a big profit

on consultancies and producing masks and PPE that don’t come up to standard.

As well as having faith in the various Public Health personalities flanking Boris at the daily press conferences,

looking back I have been ever grateful that I live in Wales where we have a sensible First Minister who looks

at the evidence, engages with the people, businesses and services affected and then responds. Mark

Drakeford has been doing a brilliant job in Wales, managing the health crisis as has our Health Minister

Vaughan Gething. The benefits of living in a small country through this pandemic with a sensible Labour

government has been enormous. I’ve felt that the Welsh Government have had my back – they’ve been on

my side throughout.

The first lockdown here from late March until early July 2020 went by relatively smoothly for me. The sun was

shining, I had loads to get on with in the garden and my allotment and I had some work to occupy me. My

adult children all kept (and still have) their jobs. We brought a dog – a 9 month old collie who we love to bits.

Two of my children and all of my grandchildren live locally so we went through it all together. Sometimes we

had to meet outside in difficult circumstances but we managed. There was also a sense in those early days

that the pandemic would all be over in a few months and we could soon resume normal life again.

When the first lockdown was lifted in July – numbers of inflections initially stayed low. We had a great summer.

The sun shone and we got away to Cornwall and saw our best friends who now live in Devon – we re-charged

our batteries in all sorts of ways. We can do this we thought!

Then of course we were back into lockdown by November here in Wales. It wasn’t over by any stretch! We

got through until Christmas as things heated up again. We managed to have all the family together for some

festivities. Looking back on it all I can see that our holiday in Cornwall last September and the fact that we

pulled off a Christmas family gathering at the end of 2020 kept me going for some time.

Then, I recall - it all went downhill. We continued in lockdown through January 2021 until the April. That was

a hard few months. It was winter, it was cold, the virus rates were high, and lots of people were dying. It was

all a bit scary – you mean it’s here to stay? And depressing. My husband’s health was not great as he awaited

a heart op, my daughter who works as a teacher in a secondary school was struggling, a close friend died

under tragic circumstances not of Covid but undoubtedly his health was impacted hugely (economically and

socially) by Covid. She was working in a high risk environment and was understandably worried about

infecting her aged parents; my son had a new born baby that had to be hidden away from family and friends;

my other two sons were living a way away and we couldn’t see any of them very much unless we were

freezing around a camp fire under a gazebo we had hastily erected in our back garden! I had had enough of

bloody Zoom meetings and retreated from work eventually taking the big decision to retire once my existing

commitments had been delivered. It was all pretty grim for a few months. We had weekly Zoom meetings

with all the kids which helped and of course we felt privileged to live in a nice house with a nice garden in a

lovely area by the sea. We had beautiful walks nearby and had lots of opportunities to wonder at the beauty

of nature. We were and still are, very lucky.

My husband had his big op in June 2021 which involved more self-isolation as everyone else was beginning

to emerge from behind their shutters. I was not allowed to visit him in hospital which was very tough for us

both but the NHS team who looked after him were amazing- the op was a success and he continues to make

a good recovery. In the last month it feels like we have got back to a more ‘normal’ way of life. We have

recently attended a favourite music festival (a delight) and have a trip to Ireland to see close relatives planned

for next month. We have made a number of visits in recent weeks to the beautiful coasts of west Wales to

stay in a friend’s caravan and all the family managed to get together again for a summer weekend at the

family home. One is grateful for these small but important punctuations that certainly keep me optimistic and

feeling very grateful for what I have.

What next? I’m not looking too far ahead. I don’t know what I’ll be doing in a few months’ time. Like others I

suspect I’m reluctant to make too many plans - I have enough EasyJet, British Rail and Brittany Ferry

vouchers left over from cancelled trips to see me through, I don’t want to gather up any more. But I expect

more lockdowns and more jabs in my arm. I have my Covid passport and I still feel lucky but I am dreading

another winter like the last one and I plan to do all I can to avoid it! Not sure how but I’m working on it.