Corona Diaries

Robert

“We have Grandma living with us and she is elderly so we have to isolate this has meant that we cannot

shop or come into contact with people, so we have had to find ways of getting fresh food.”

Background Information

Male, aged 11-16, Secondary School Student, White, living with Mum, Dad, 2 older brothers and

Grandma.

June 2020

Corona disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. We first

heard of it January 2020, but it was far away, and we didn’t take much notice at the time as it started in

China.

Most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and

recover without requiring special treatment. Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like

cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to develop

serious illness.

As a result of this our lives changed suddenly as it caused chaos all over the world. This resulted in masks

being worn, social distancing of 2 metres and everyone advised to stay home, it is called lockdown.

The news brought bad stories all the time about rising death tolls, lack of space in hospitals temporary

hospitals being built including the Principality Stadium becoming a Nightingale Hospital to cope with

hospitals not being big enough.

Days during lockdown which have had most effect on me and my family so far:

Easter: This was very different to previous years as we usually spend Easter with family and friends, this

year it was just the 6 of us at home but we had fun, a walk a nice Sunday meal together and even got some

chocolate.

Uncle Jim: Sadly, my Uncle Jim, dad’s eldest brother died, we were very sad, but it got worse as we

couldn’t even go to the funeral. The family will now plan a get together to remember him and celebrate his

life when this is all over.

VE75 Celebrations: In my experience of VE75 day it was great, and it really made

me realise how Great Britain’s soldiers were and how much people had risked their

lives so we can be how we are today. For the 75th anniversary I thought we may not

be able to really celebrate but people made plans to have a permitted 2-hour

distance gathering in town. So, everyone decorated their houses and made food for

the party. We couldn’t share the food with others, but we were able to sit outside

and shout over to our neighbours who’s had their party at the front of their houses.

On VE we did many things for example:

➢ We made a picnic with food from that time,

cucumber sandwiches, Victoria sponge cake,

scones jam and cream, cup of tea

➢ We sat a safe distance from our neighbours but

joined a distancing street party to celebrate

➢ We had food and drink I’ve never had before

➢ We played on the road on scooter and bikes

➢ We listened to old music

➢ And celebrated our Victory in Europe heroes

As well as these changes there have been others:

Everyone has to stay 2m apart unless you live with that person. Also, it is advised

that masks are worn in public places.

We have Grandma living with us and she is elderly so we have to isolate this has

meant that we cannot shop or come into contact with people, so we have had to find

ways of getting fresh food. Usually we get bits and pieces, sometimes fish, meat, or

vegetables from the local stores in town at weekends when we collect Grandma’s

medication, but, if we need something in the week my mum or dad usually all to

Sainsbury or Tesco or the local Co-op. So much is delivered now to help in these

times. We now have her medication delivered by volunteer teams from Boots rather

than my mum collecting it every week. We also have a butcher delivery once a week

and also fresh fruit and vegetables. There is a lot of kind and caring people who are volunteering, if we

didn’t have Grandma here, we may be able to do more for the community, but we would rather she was

with us really as she never wanted to go into a home. This week we have also managed a dairy delivery to

be set up of milk, cream, eggs, and fruit juices.

Some things haven’t changed, we still have school online through Google Classroom

and my mum and dad still have work. My mum lectured from home online and has

meetings via TEAMS. My eldest brother is furloughed (this means 80% paid for now

but going back to work soon). We are lucky lots of people have problems now with no

money coming in and it is hard for them. We see on the news big companies closing

down.

Home haircuts became necessary…seriously regretted this as he cut mine next!

Communication is helped with online and social media we have lots of

Zoom fun with family doing quizzes and challenges.

We bought a table tennis set and used our breakfast bar as a

permanent table tennis challenge.

We are all so proud of our brave and hardworking NHS and so we light candles in

our window and also, we coloured and put rainbow pictures for all to see. Every

Thursday we clap the NHS outside our front doors, we have also sung the Welsh

national anthem and we all got to know Captain Tom who was everybody’s hero.

Home made baking came back and we have had to sometimes bake bread.

Lots of family walks and fresh air.

Eating everyday as a family.

No clubs, no afterschool commitments.

All my piano, singing and drama classes are via Zoom and have continued as normal throughout lockdown.

July 2020

Coronavirus or Covid 19, still has no cure but treatment is improving due to less people getting ill and also learning how best to help patients. There were large areas such as the Principality stadium in Cardiff usually used for sport and concerts but now used as a Nightingale hospital named after Florence Nightingale. There has been talk about some malaria tablets and even some steroid tablets helping with symptoms and also researchers have been looking for a vaccine to protect us all. Hopefully that will be made available to everyone as soon as they have one. There are apps we can help with research by checking in each day and saying how we are feeling and whether we have had it or have symptoms for statistics so the situation can be checked, and it monitored if there is improvement.

Family

The initial family time we experienced has changed slightly. My dad and eldest brother have been able to

go back to working in construction as they are permitted to work together as they live in the same

household. My eldest brother was furloughed which means, no work but still getting 80% of his salary.

Sadly, his company have not survived and now he has been made redundant. Getting a new job in these

times is hard, especially a career path job. However, he will be able to get work in the meantime in helping

others. We have also been busy forming a vegetable patch, we still have meat, milk and fruit delivered

which has been very helpful as my grandmother still lives with us and has had to be isolated. During in this

second part of lock down since they have been working and the construction industry being long hours, we

were not able to enjoy the family time we had at the start of lockdown. Also people have learnt how to use

different media to get clubs up and running again so most evenings I have continued with my clubs. The

only day I have no club is Sunday. Also football is not possible but apart from that we have adapted and

found new ways. I have continued with my Theory of Music and now on Grade 3 and also my practical

piano which is now Grade 5. Zoom and TEAMs are now household names and keep everyone in touch.

However that doesn’t mean I have not had any time with my brothers and parents. We eat as a family at

weekends, we watch a family film regularly, when the weather is nice we have long walks and cool off in

the sea.

Friends

Some signs have been replaced by ones like this one. Lock down has been great but this last couple of

weeks have been very fun as rules have been lifted slightly and I have been able to socialize with another

person from another household as long as we are 2 meters apart. For some reason Wales are behind

England which is OK I suppose as if it spikes there again it will warn us and we can make changes. Some

people haven’t listened though and spoil; it for others. Last weekend there was chaos at a local beach and

as a result of that the Beach carparks have been closed again. This rule did not change how we socialized

as we are normally 2 meters apart but we still had to be cautious of abiding by this rule. Me and my friend

Connor went on a skate and on this skate we were able to catch up about how each others lock down went.

This day was very fun! I also did a walk with David around the woods and over the dunes again at a safe

distance. Following on from George Floyd’s death there has been lots of focus on Black Lives Matter. It has

been frightening to see so many people gathered together on the news at these protest marches but

understandable that people feel so strongly and want their voice heard.

School

I am very excited to go back to school although I am not the only one who thinks this but I am not quite sure

what some of the rules are, for example how the classes are going to manage and who will be in our

classes. But overall I am very excited to socialize and be in a school routine again. We will still have Google

classrooms. Our attending school is called CICUP (come in, catch up and prepare/plan). We have had lots

of information from school via SIMS which has come from suggestions by the Welsh Government. Some

families are choosing not to send their children back yet. Some can’t go because they have underlying

health issues.

NHS

Everyone is very grateful to the NHS; the staff have been very brave and courageous working in all the

PPE which must be awkward and uncomfortable but life-saving. Also working very long hours. Every

Thursday at 8pm everyone used to stand at their homes and clap to show how glad we were for them all.

This has stopped which shows things are getting better, but we shouldn’t forget as lots of the NHS are still

battling C-19. Football has started back up on TV, the FA cup is being shown, they have no crowds but

have crowd recordings they play to give atmosphere. The players can’t hear it though!