Covid memories

‘Covid was a bit like the film the Good the bad and the ugly.’ 

Written by Jenny Hope

For me, the good was learning new skills like how to use Zoom, how to record the readings or intercessions on our phones and send them to Jenny to be added to the online Sunday service, and how to record bedtime stories for my granddaughter learning to use Whatsapp to keep in touch with family and friends.

There were meetings for my other activities on Zoom and time to catch up on craft. The house and garden was cleaner and tidier than usual. The wonderful day when we decided we could open our family bubble and the grandchildren could actually hug grandma again, they nearly knocked me over in the process.

The bad was not being able to see family and friends for so many weeks, not being able to attend Church for so long especially when we had to stop services again and when we could attend not being able to sing the hymns. 

Not being able to grieve with friends and having to watch funerals by using the link to our TV rather than giving support in person. Watching the news each night and seeing the death toll rising day by day for so many weeks.

The ugly, I hated having to go out and walk on my own and having to dive into some ones path or cross the road when someone else was coming along on the same side. And what a pain having to put on PPE and clean the pews between the services on a Sunday. 

Our Reflections on Covid 19 

Written by Gill and Ian Walker

Bad things

1. Long Covid
2. Not being able to visit our last remaining aunt, Vera, in Gainsborough, in her care home. We couldn’t visit during the pandemic until late 2021, when it was masks, tests beforehand, and a maximum of 30 minutes. Our last visit to her, just before Christmas 2021, was abruptly terminated by the staff, and we really didn’t have a chance to say cheerio, we love you. Due to life etc in early 2022, and her home being closed for the usual winter plagues, we never saw her again, as she died in March 2022. To top it off, after her funeral, we both went down with COVID!
3. Our little cat, Poppet, was mauled by a neighbour’s dog in July 2020. Due to the way vets had to operate in the pandemic, just like with Vera, we couldn’t nurse her and tell her we loved her. Poppet died in a veterinary hospital in Manchester, and she was left outside when we arrived there to bring her home. It was truly horrible! She’s in our garden now annoying the birds!
4. Not being able to gather in the church community.

Good things

Not really being bothered by people…
Working in the garden in the sun…
The quietness of life…
Few vapour trails and planes flying!
Gill managed to find a little kitten that needed a home in August 2020, and Tilly came!

It was a mixture of good and bad. 

Written by Shirley Smith

The good thing was that Graham had nine weeks at home because of his age and because they counted Emma as being more vulnerable to Covid. And yes, he still got paid so it was great.

The downside was the girls missed so much schooling. When Chloe got up on time (most of the time) she had live lessons and it was as though the teacher was in our front room. Emma had work sent through which meant I became her teacher. 

We would join in every Thursday to clap for the NHS. The funny thing was we set up the treadmill and bike and we all had a go at keeping fit 😂.  That’s just some of our experiences. 

Joy and Sadness

Written by Jenny Gillies

I remember I had just finished a new risk assessment for how to keep the church open when I heard that everything was shutting down. I spent Easter Sunday Morning in the woodland at Dibbensdale. I felt bereft of my congregation. 

I watched many clergy colleagues turn their desks into full TV studios. Here in Bromborough we started out on a far more low tech way. Everyone was in a group with a team leader for a call to check on them and we posted booklets of prayers to everyone.

As time passed Anna my daughter offered to edit together a Sunday service each week and gradually a team emerged of people who would film themselves reading and praying so that we had something to share with others. Through this we collected people from all over the world and I stopped because Anna was tired and because some people preferred it to coming to church! 

Mum was already in care for dementia and died seven weeks into the first wave. We missed Mothering Sunday and her birthday and I am sure she thought we had all left her. It was horrible.

However, as you will recall we had weeks and weeks of incredible weather and her funeral brought Andrew and Julie from Suffolk for a day and after the service we spent time sitting in the garden with pasties and Jam and cream scones – her favourites. 

My daughter Rachael was among the first in the country to get Covid. Thankfully, her headteacher’s husband was a GP and he recommended that she take several weeks off as he could see the possible danger of post viral syndrome or Long Covid as it is now known. We all know she was fortunate. At the time though, I remember her telling me she had a rash and us all being very puzzled. Later it was one of the recognised symptoms along with loss of smell. She still struggles with that. 

Like many families, Sunday night became quiz night and we took it in turns to challenge each other. Dad though was astonished that asking us about the Zimmerman Telegram was met with blank faces. We all know what it is now though. 

After a few weeks, the feeding project began. The community loaded my step with food, the church offered money and a packing service started. For 18 months a group of us worked every other Friday to shop and pack and deliver.

The café was our shop, the large lounge a huge clothes and gift store. During that time we also helped a number of family with clothing as well as delivering prescriptions and offering all sorts of advice on the phone or via zoom. 

There were funerals. To start with three outside in the churchyard and then, once churches opened, others followed. We lost Josie, not to the stroke she had but to the Covid she caught while in hospital. The funeral of a 35 year old man with a wife, children and a whole community in shock and grief was especially hard. Until then many of the young had thought they were invincible – it proved they were not. 

We have moved on but Dad, like many of you lost confidence in going out and being with other people as well as the use of his legs. I do believe, for him and others, it brought the end faster and has made the quality of life more difficult.  For children, missing their first years in school is having a life changing effect on the progress they are making and the life they will live. 

We can be nostalgic for the good bits – we almost all know what a ‘sharp scratch’ feels like and perhaps for some of you a baked potato really did change your life. Clapping for the NHS brought us together, though we are struggling at the consequences for our future health care now. And I still say the Lord’s prayer when washing my hands thoroughly.