With large sections of society going into ‘social-isolation’, one Lichfield resident lifts the lid on her thoughts in the latest of a series of diary posts on the coronavirus outbreak.
The city must still be out there with its medieval ladder lay-out of streets and market square, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen it that it could be a ghost town by now, like the ones in western or nuclear disaster movies.
But it isn’t so. Lichfield’s lived through war and plague before and some places are apparently doing quite well, with intrepid shoppers visiting a bakery or greengrocer as soon as they’re open for business. I hope my favourite cafe’s surviving too.
I won’t be the only person in physical confinement having interesting imaginary adventures and vivid dreams in the night.
Maybe the mind works like that, to balance things out a bit?
Some free-range fantasies – like a great escape over the fence or finding my late partner standing alive and well on the doorstep – are never going to happen, but when a travel brochure arrived in the post with glossy pictures of trips to exciting places, two firm decisions were made: to see Paris again and finally get to America.
In the meantime, in the great indoors, there are a lot of cleaning opportunities to discover, a cryptic crossword to attempt. Or I can take a precious breath in the garden.
Sharing a time like this with someone you love and trust – or in a family you do not fear – must be a real support.
There are always dark domestic stories, but life in lockdown for some must be more like a nightmare, a trap within a trap.
Later in the year, or when this war is won, the figures for divorce will surely rise – but there’ll be more weddings and a baby boom too.
Tessa also writes on www.pensionista.co.uk – an adventurous take on much later life.
