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Date
I wrote this on Sunday 26 April 2020. In Isolation for five weeks.
I listen to the lawnmower outside and I am reminded of a time when there were no cares about a deadly virus, an economy collapse, or environmental damage. I think of my Dad pushing that lawnmower, doing what had to be done every Sunday, first at home and then doing it again at his parent's house in another town 22 miles away. The whole of our Sunday's seemed to be filled with the sound of the lawnmower. The sound of normal.
While Dad is outside, my Mum and Grandmother inside cooking Sunday lunch which was either a roast of lamb or a home made meat pie in a kitchen with no running hot water. The smells of cooking and the laughter of 6 children playing. Then having to help rake up the lawn clippings into a pile to dry out for our Grandfather to later burn. Not done now.
Remembering these days reminds me that isolation now in this COVID time means my grandchildren will lose this opportunity to experience those memories in their future because their past is being stolen from them. This makes me sad.
Zooming and Face time or even Skype is not the same as being there, smelling the cut grass, the cooking in the kitchen and everything else like a hug and a kiss and even the tears of my Grandmother as we left to not return until the next Sunday.
Ending isolation comes with fears of getting the virus but also hope that there will be more Sundays with family around. Slowly moving forward if we all practice our social distancing today, tomorrow will be better.
I listen to the lawnmower outside and I am reminded of a time when there were no cares about a deadly virus, an economy collapse, or environmental damage. I think of my Dad pushing that lawnmower, doing what had to be done every Sunday, first at home and then doing it again at his parent's house in another town 22 miles away. The whole of our Sunday's seemed to be filled with the sound of the lawnmower. The sound of normal.
While Dad is outside, my Mum and Grandmother inside cooking Sunday lunch which was either a roast of lamb or a home made meat pie in a kitchen with no running hot water. The smells of cooking and the laughter of 6 children playing. Then having to help rake up the lawn clippings into a pile to dry out for our Grandfather to later burn. Not done now.
Remembering these days reminds me that isolation now in this COVID time means my grandchildren will lose this opportunity to experience those memories in their future because their past is being stolen from them. This makes me sad.
Zooming and Face time or even Skype is not the same as being there, smelling the cut grass, the cooking in the kitchen and everything else like a hug and a kiss and even the tears of my Grandmother as we left to not return until the next Sunday.
Ending isolation comes with fears of getting the virus but also hope that there will be more Sundays with family around. Slowly moving forward if we all practice our social distancing today, tomorrow will be better.