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.
A phone call is still the treat of each day, though it can sometimes take a surprising turn.
Who’d have thought that a usually care-free young cousin would want to talk, not about romance and fashion – her favourite topics – but about bats and wet markets in China?
My own thoughts turn to people I’ve lost touch with over the years.
I’m curious about the isolation experience elsewhere and resentments of the past seem rather petty now. So a very old flame in America and an ex-sister-in-law in Southport will soon find emails in their inbox, if they’re still around to open them.
Smoke often drifts over the garden fence, followed by the scent of sausages – and on really unfortunate afternoons, a selection of Polish pop songs.
Nothing, not even a world crisis, can come between the family next door and their beloved barbeques.
The daily briefing from Downing Street shows the latest graphs and statistics, which tell us we’re “flattening the curve” and “coming through the peak” of the infection, which is progress, but at such a terrible price.
And then there’s the other invisible enemy, the one that can’t be measured – the loneliness that lies in wait for the isolated, any age, anywhere, anytime.
When the phone rings again, it will be another welcome chance to talk. But right here and now, I could do with a hug.
Tessa also writes on www.pensionista.co.uk – an adventurous take on much later life.
