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I’m very pleased to be invited to submit a summary of my Covid experience.
I want to tell it from the perspective of being many years retired and long married to my husband David. Being already retired meant that many of the restrictions have impacted less on us than on young people to whom we feel very indebted. Covid has meant that we have spent more time together, just the two of us, than at any stage since we were married 51 years ago. And it has brought us even closer together.
One of my mantras is that our marriage has survived over such a long time and having lived in several countries because of how different we are.
United in our values and our devotion to our children and to community we look at the world through different lenses.
David is an engineer. I was a teacher. He is much “bigger picture” than me.
Through the lockdown experiences of Melbourne and Sydney (where we live) he has watched the daily press conferences and kept daily records of cases and deaths and trends. He has wanted to talk about The Virus, a lot. And we did.
However, I came to the point where I could no longer talk about it at length. Some time back we came to the point of moderating our conversations to better honour the point of view of the other.
At this stage as restrictions are due to be lifted (dangerously and prematurely, as we agree) I’m just wishing for “it all to be over”. Whatever that might mean, and as so many of us are saying.
I have concentrated through a narrower gaze. Friends and family, our children and grandchildren who are scattered over our wide brown land. None of them in Sydney. Accepting not seeing people but revelling in the technology that allows lots of communication. Texting and emailing, sharing photos and articles, occasional phone calls and FaceTime etc, webinars and the like.
“The world in the palm of my hand!”
Counting our blessings and staying as positive as we can.
During all this we had the privilege of helping a young Afghani friend get his wife and child out of Kabul. That has helped put everything into perspective. We did that jointly.
There is much to be celebrated.
I want to tell it from the perspective of being many years retired and long married to my husband David. Being already retired meant that many of the restrictions have impacted less on us than on young people to whom we feel very indebted. Covid has meant that we have spent more time together, just the two of us, than at any stage since we were married 51 years ago. And it has brought us even closer together.
One of my mantras is that our marriage has survived over such a long time and having lived in several countries because of how different we are.
United in our values and our devotion to our children and to community we look at the world through different lenses.
David is an engineer. I was a teacher. He is much “bigger picture” than me.
Through the lockdown experiences of Melbourne and Sydney (where we live) he has watched the daily press conferences and kept daily records of cases and deaths and trends. He has wanted to talk about The Virus, a lot. And we did.
However, I came to the point where I could no longer talk about it at length. Some time back we came to the point of moderating our conversations to better honour the point of view of the other.
At this stage as restrictions are due to be lifted (dangerously and prematurely, as we agree) I’m just wishing for “it all to be over”. Whatever that might mean, and as so many of us are saying.
I have concentrated through a narrower gaze. Friends and family, our children and grandchildren who are scattered over our wide brown land. None of them in Sydney. Accepting not seeing people but revelling in the technology that allows lots of communication. Texting and emailing, sharing photos and articles, occasional phone calls and FaceTime etc, webinars and the like.
“The world in the palm of my hand!”
Counting our blessings and staying as positive as we can.
During all this we had the privilege of helping a young Afghani friend get his wife and child out of Kabul. That has helped put everything into perspective. We did that jointly.
There is much to be celebrated.