There have only been two years that have brought more sadness than joy when I've been glad to see the back of them. The first was 1970 the year my Mam died & my son was diagnosed with serious heart problems and now this year. Not bad I suppose only two out of over 70 years.
This year has been OK for me & my family but I lost a good friend of over 50 years and a couple of other friends. It has changed our lifestyles but that's nothing compared to the grief and sadness brought to so many families with loss or being unable to visit relatives in care homes. My friend whose 100 year old Mum is in a care home has been unable to see her since March. She has fought for months to get the visits resumed as her Mum has deteriorated so much and they did resume two weeks ago but now they have been cancelled again.
However there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel with the new vaccines which seem to be being given out very quickly. Just hope that it comes in time to save lives and
restore some normality to the lives of those in care homes and their families.
restore some normality to the lives of those in care homes and their families.
I look forward to 2021 and hope that people will respect the rules imposed on us so lives will be saved and together with the new vaccines people's lives can return to some kind of normality whatever that is.
Happy New Year!
I believe people are finally taking this pandemic seriously. It seems like our town if now having the citizens observing the rules and wearing masks. Lots of sadness this past year for many and we are so hopeful 2021 will be better. Happy New Year Winifred to you and yours.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you too. I think people here took it seriously for the first few months but I think a lot of people are sick of the restrictions and have got a bit blase about it. My husband says lots of people in the shops don't follow the guidelines and the shop staff just ignore them. Looks like we'll have to rely on the vaccines.
DeleteI'm sorry about the death of your friends. I was able to visit my mother via the garden in her Care home in the summer. She sat in a wheelchair on the patio and we were allowed to talk to her from the garden. I was due to see her again but then it got cancelled. I then did a zoom call with her recently which I think she found very confusing. I don't think she knew who we were, which in a way was a blessing.
ReplyDeleteWe may be moved in Tier 5 soon. I can't see things improving until Easter. Let's pray for a miracle. Happy New Year to you!
Hi Joey glad you were able to visit your Mum in the summer. So many care homes don't have gardens to use for visiting. I don't understand why they allow them to use buildings without gardens. My stepmum was in a home which had a tiny little space with a few tables but it tended to be used by smokers. There were a few people in the home who liked to walk but could only pace about the home and it was sad to see them going baclwards & forwards. Surely exercise is important when they have been used to walking and are fit enough to do it.
DeleteYou're right it will take a while for things to improve but I pray the miracle is on its way with the vaccines. Stay safe.
So sorry about your friend and her mom. And all the loss everyone has experienced. Glad u are doing well. Hope the year ahead unfolds in a more healthy caring way for everyone.
ReplyDeleteI hope & pray so Sandy. Take care.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry for the loss of people close to you. Let's hope the vaccines help us all and put an end to tragedies and fear.
ReplyDeleteI wish you all the best dear Winifred!
Its so nice to know a kindred spirit...especially about books. Every one of our rooms have bookcases except two. Yes, I too hope life can get back to normal. My husband was in the hospital recently and its lonely and not right to have no family visitors, except for myself. I u nderstand the reasons behind the rules but its still tough! Better call it a day now.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to read ebooks from the library to save having more books. It's useful to be able to iron, knit & sew while you listen.
DeleteHope 2021 is a good year for you and your husband with no more hospital visits. God bless.
It's been a surreal year, but hopefully this next year, we'll be more prepared and hopefully the arrival of vaccines will help with that.
ReplyDeleteStay safe dear friend.
Hugs,
Jo
Thank you Jo. Yes hopefully the vaccine will help keep us safe and we can have a life maybe not exactly like we had before the virus but with a little more freedom. Maybe even a holiday! Take care Jo & God bless.
ReplyDeleteWinifred, I am sorry you lost friends in 2020. I hope the Covid situation where you are is better than here, America being at nearly 450,000 deaths with no hope of most people getting a vaccine for months. At least Trump is gone.
ReplyDeleteWell Snow we have been hit hard in the UK probably because Boris didn't act to lock down soon enough. Then he released the lockdown too quickly and allowed Christmas to be a free for all. They messed up the track & trace and didn't stop people coming in from places where the virus was rampant. We have had over 3.9 million cases of COVID & over 100,000 deaths, highest figures in Europe and I think second only to the USA yet we had a month notice of what was coming & didn't use it to prepare. Hard to believe that the NHS has managed to survive given all the cut backs the government made in the run up to COVID in their efforts to try to privatise it. They have been amazing, they must be worn out & there's months still to go. The health service in Portugal is going under and Germany has sent specialists & ventilators to support them. Sad times.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing the government have got right is with the vaccine thank goodness. Over 10 million have now been vaccinated but it will be a while before everyone has it. Had my first jab last week so it's a start, now got to wait another 12 weeks for the second one. Why will it take a long time to get the USA vaccinated. You have the vaccine although it's a huge popuation to cover.
You must be overjoyed Trump has gone, Biden has a major job ahead of him but I hope he succeeds.
Take care.
"You must be overjoyed Trump has gone"
ReplyDeleteOrgasmic even,but at age 71 (for three more weeks anyway), I'll die before his evil influence abates. For example, there are members of Trump's party in Congress who openly advocate the murder of Congressional members of the other party, and, rather than censuring them, Trump's party is defending their "free speech rights. Pre-Civil War, that level of hatred existed, but I had never seen anything close to it during my lifetime.
My age group is (are?) being told to expect our vaccines in mid-May--here in Oregon, I mean. The reason things are going so slow is that the Federal government didn't deliver all the vaccines it promised, and it didn't provide the money, guidance, and manpower to administer them. Also, some states are simply inept at taking care of business even in ordinary times. We are seeing a bit over 4,000 deaths a day some days, our total deaths being around 450,000. My wife, Peggy, and I went into serious isolation in, I would guess, early April, and what with vaccine resistant strains starting to develop, I don't know when that isolation will end. I do know that it bothers Peggy more than it bothers me, probably because she had such an active social life pre-Covid, whereas, as is often the case with men, the older I got, the more isolated I got. Because of Covid, my social life even picked-up because she's home all the time.
My two best friends are bloggers who live in England (one in Manchester, and the other in a small town on the East Coast). Both are at extreme risk of death (one through age and the other due to poor health) if they get Covid. Through them--and the news media, especially the BBC--I know somewhat of your nation's situation.
When I was in high school, I had an English penpal for a short while but, before I started my blog, that was practically my only exposure to anyone from Great Britain. Counting you, the two I mentioned as being my best friends, and the father of one of the two I mentioned, I know four Brits. I also know five Australians, and most of thosee nine people way back with me, some to when I started blogging in 2008. I would even say that the bloggers I'm closest to are from GB and Australia. I don't know whether I feel a commonality with people from those nations that has to do with where they're from, or whether our differences have played an important part in drawing us together, or whether it's simply the way that things have worked out between us as individuals and has nothing to do with where we live. I do know that I will always think of my friends from other English speaking countries as somehow exotic because, for all our similarities, I never lose sight of the differences that exist simply by reason of where we live.
It seems downright magical to me that I could travel to some far away place like Britain or Australia and hear my "own" language being spoken (it even seemed magical when I did it in Canada). To me, our common language gives us such a tie that it's as though we are all on an island together, an island that's surrounded by the rest of the world.
I'm the same it's amazing the distance between us all yet the language gives us a great tie even though there are some significant differences.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I couldn't believe what I was seeing in Washington in the Capitol that day but then again people here shock me too. People who were born and educated here who go on to join extremist groups shock me. I just hope that Biden can help heal the divisions but when people are so extreme you wonder! It was like listening to the Nazis & their propaganda. Just been watching an old wartime film 49th Parallel set in Canada in 1941 about a group of Nazis landing in Canada. I love old black & white films especially war films. I grew up terrified of German accents being born just at the end of the war & hearing those voices in the films they are still showing.
You will be swamped with information about COVID if you've been watching the BBC. They really do it to death but surprisingly lots of people here never watch BBC! Mainly younger people & those from immigrant groups. I suppose my generation tend to trust it as we grew up with it & it was the only channel until 1955. It still does the news much better than the other channels we get.
Well I hope your Blogger friends are staying safe, most older people & those with health issues are being sensible, it's mainly younger people who are not but that's the thing with young people they think they are invincible. My daughter has had so many arguments with my grandson (23) about the regulations but he doesn't listen. Well after all they know everything don't they! Well I'm off to watch "Death in Paradise" & after about 5 says of solid rain I'm going to enjoy some lovely sunshine on Guadeloupe! God bless (even though you don't believe).