Covid.....

Facebook memories has reminded me it's 2 years since the Pandemic began to impact our life here at Tup-towers:

2m3mp0m M8aurch o32m02e0  · 

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So, Chris has just received The Text from NHS England.

He's officially an extremely vulnerable person.

He should not leave the house & garden for 12 weeks, and shield himself from us inside the house (no shared bathroom, meals etc...)

We've decided to completely isolate as a whole family instead, none of us leaving the house.

Any deliveries have to be left on the bench in the courtyard where we wipe them down with antibac - or leave them there for 3 days so any virus can die off.

Neighbours are rallying round offering help so we'll figure out how that works...

We've registered with the Council to request help...

We're ok

(maybe a bit wobbly)

 

We shielded - but for waaaay longer than 12 weeks...

Over the last 2 years we have Shielded (where there was Government legislation and support) and self-isolated (when Gov support ended...) as a family.  And when Mr T (who we were trying to protect) had to return to the onsite classroom to teach, and Wee Tup had to return to onsite school, we kept every other part of our lives isolated where possible.  

Family visits were outside only.  Friend contact was minimal. Zoom was a lifesaver (socially and work wise).  The world was both huge (social media connections) and tiny (physically, only our house - which is quite small).

We lost my father-in-law to Covid (in Feb 2021) in circumstances not of his making, as he had been super-cautious since the beginning. Other people's carelessness have a lot to answer for...

Mr T and I are both fully vaccinated (him 3 with a booster on the way, me 2 plus booster)

Wee Tup is eligible for 'under 11 and living with a CEV parent' vaccine, but it's not being rolled out in our area yet... and no-one knows when it will...

The Government says it's done with enforcing mitigations - everyone knows how to be careful now, so we can each do the right thing

Schools stopped requiring masks in the classroom.  

Mr T caught Covid at a training event (only him wearing a mask in a room full of people).  

Wee Tup caught Covid in his classroom (only him wearing a mask in many rooms full of people). 

I caught Covid off Wee Tup as I was looking after him at home.

2 years of being careful, and it still caught up with us... because the 'herd immunity' mentality is no longer "in it together, we'll care for others not just ourselves" but now "I'll probably be ok, you'll probably be ok, and if you're not then just stay indoors... let us get on with our lives"

Good grief - how long since I last posted??!!

 

Such a lot has happened in my life since my last blog post back in February 2019

New beginnings:

We moved from the North to the South, so that I could take up a new position: as a part time Disability Advisor and part time Chaplain amongst Deaf people, both in the same Diocese.

I genuinely thought I had arrived at my final destination and that this dual role was what I'd been looking for.

Endings:

However, after a year in post I took the difficult decision (with the HR department) to relinquish the role of Deaf Chaplain - that post came to an end for me on 31st August 2020. I remain in the role of part time disability advisor.

Pandemic:

it's never a good time to end a role but it's especially difficult when a pandemic arrives during that process.

The pandemic caught us all by surprise and I think many of us genuinely thought it would have burnt out within four to six months…

Our household willingly shielded, altogether – Mr T being a kidney transplant recipient is immune suppressed and therefore although he is very healthy he is extremely vulnerable to viruses.

We embraced (the first) lockdown because as a country we were “in it together”.

Church buildings closed and moved worship into the online space - discovering perhaps to its surprise that Christians were already gathered there being church together and had been for some time.

The second lockdown was more difficult - I think because it signalled the fact that the pandemic would not go away anytime soon. There was no end date in sight. It became apparent that no one could place a date in a calendar when we could return to ‘freedom’ in all of its senses.

The third lockdown was almost impossible, mentally. Schools were under enormous pressure to make home schooling provision as rigorous as being on site in a school building. There seemed to be little consistency from parliament around restrictions and mitigations.

2020 had been a time of clarity.

2021 seemed to be a time of complete uncertainty.

2022 appears to be ‘every man for himself’,

‘you do you and I'll do me’

- which is not how a virus works and certainly not how a virus is brought to an end.

60% of COVID deaths involve disabled people.

Anybody who was once categorised by the government as Clinically Extremely Vulnerable is now being told to “stop being afraid”, “come out from behind your sofa”, and “get on with it”.

CEV and disabled people are now being blamed for restrictions.

“why don't you just stay indoors and let the rest of us get on with our lives”…

So much for the government rhetoric of “being in it together”.

So much for the Christian rhetoric of being “the Body of Christ”.