When they say lockdown is different for everyone, they’re not far wrong. The importance of well-being in the pandemic is so important.

When they say we’re all in the same storm but maybe in different boats, I completely agree.

THAT is why there is no right or wrong answer for any of us at the moment, all along I’ve been struggling, but the one thing that has kept me going is the fact that there is probably someone in a worse off situation.

On a weekly basis I have felt anger towards the selfish people out there that have not listened to the rules (and I’m sure I’m not the only one), people having parties and not having a thought for anyone else. I try not to think about it too much because it upsets me, but they’re the ones that are getting attention and they shouldn’t! Don’t forget the ones that are following the rules, their lives made a misery because of it.

Real life stories

Stories that I have discovered since being in lockdown….

Sophia is a student living away from her family; she is 19, and working part time in a bar to keep the money coming in because her loan just about covers her study fees. She lives in Southampton, her mother lives in London and her father lives in Manchester, she has no siblings and her parents are divorced. She has friends that she shares her house with, and she gets on ok with them so to her being in lockdown for her is relatively ok because she spends time either running around the local park or watching Netflix. However she cannot work because the bar she works in is currently closed so she has no income.

Her evening meals consist of porridge or pasta, luckily her housemates have been helping her by giving her food but she’s too proud. She could stay with her father in Manchester, but he’s the only person she knows up there and her mother doesn’t have room for her because she’s in a 1 bedroom flat. Not only that her mother has a boyfriend that she lives with whom she doesn’t get on with because he flirts with her when her mothers not around.

Ben lives by himself in a 1 bedroom flat in the suburbs. His life has always been quite sociable, he’s always had friends around him all the time and family that live nearby but not quite walking distance and he relies on public transport. He works in a town 10 miles away so again, relying on public transport, he previously had a bike but it got stolen. He’s currently working full time from his sofa in his lounge, but needs to go into work twice a week because he has a job that requires him to be present in the building on certain days.

Janine has 2 sets of parents she’s watching out for because they’re all over 80. Luckily they’re both walking distance and she can manage with getting an online shop delivered to them both on a weekly basis. The added stress is that she has three children to also look after, which has meant home schooling for a 4, 10 and 14 year old girl (with added hormones).

Jane also works part time at a local theme park, but because of lockdown she has been furloughed. Her husband passed away of Covid back in September of last year, so she is literally doing this all by herself. She is so grateful that she has a garden, and her husband had a good pension but it doesn’t make it any easier and misses him so desperately and cries herself to sleep most nights.

Sue lives alone and is retired. She had friends who were also retired that lived in the village near her but they all had family and had their own support bubbles in place, she doesn’t have any family so she is completely alone. For this reason she bought herself a cat to keep her company called Fig. Jenny had started to feel much better having Fig around, she had television and internet but she wasn’t completely confident with using it and still relied on dvd’s and CD’s.

She did have a friends who would’ve dropped anything to help her, but again they were already in a bubbles so couldn’t come round. Unfortunately on Guy Fawkes night Fig disappeared and has not been since, and the worry of it is added stress to Sue. She spent time walking the streets of the village and putting up posters but by Christmas she had given up all hope of seeing her little Fig ever again and it was unbearable anyway but having that little cat was her company especially for over Christmas.

The children

We are all suffering with being stuck indoors all the time, it’s really affecting the children’s mental health. At least as adults we can adjust to the current surroundings and do things to adapt. Preschoolers can’t understand why they cannot see their friends, we would walk down the road (used to because now he won’t even go out) and see his friends on the other side of the road and they would wave to each other like strangers. It was one of the unhappy memories about this time I will never forget and it got to me really hard, every time I saw his confused face I wanted to cry but I would have to suck it up and pretend it was normal and just keep thinking positive. We were all healthy, was what is always going around in my head.

William and his dad haven’t been in a shop since March, because if we did need anything I would be the one to go. There was no way I was taking any chances letting him go anywhere, so I was the one that was taking the risk but that was my decision. We were lucky enough that we’d managed to always get online deliveries for shopping.

Stopping for our parents going out has been a challenge, they all liked the daily papers so it would mean they were going in paper shops on a daily basis which made us worry constantly. However, eventually we managed to get paper deliveries for them all which was a blessing because that meant they could all stay at home.

This afternoon I saw in the news that 10 million vaccines have now been given people in the UK, I really think that’s incredible and while there are lots of pessimists in the country that have already decided that the vaccine isn’t any good or against their beliefs these people are forgetting that they are in fact putting a strain on our NHS. I really wish that they would think again about their actions, and maybe think about the other lives they’re risking. Maybe I’m talking out of term, but I don’t want to offend anyone I am just sincerely concerned that some of the population of this country seems to becoming more and more selfish.

The good news for me is that Mike has had his vaccine, I was so pleased and relieved and I am looking forward to having a good nights sleep tonight without waking up in the night scarred wondering what I would do if he wasn’t there beside me. I know we’re not out of it yet, but this for me is the first step to possibly getting back to a bit of normality.

I can see that light, and it is getting bigger.

Let’s hope that things get a bit better for Sophia, Ben, Janine and Sue.