Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives.

One year since that mantra became a part of life.

One year since we could see family and friends with no restrictions.

One year since we could go out without thinking about face masks and hand sanitizers.

One year since social distancing and furlough became part of our everyday vocabularly.

One year since our children were at school, playing happily with friends.

One year of lockdowns.

It’s quite funny, really, when I look back on Facebook memories from a year ago, talking about how it’s only for a few weeks.

How naive!

One year later, and while we finally have a light at the end of the tunnel, the end of that tunnel feels so very far away.

Lockdown number one wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was almost quite enjoyable at times, if we can cast aside the fact that thousands of people died from the virus and many more became ill. On a personal level, it wasn’t bad. It was sunny, it was warm. I had a chance to spend some really quality time with my children.

We played in the garden. We went for walks. We clapped for the NHS. We decorated hearts and hung them around the neighbourhood. We painted rainbows and decorated the windows. We made Tik Tok videos and worked out with Joe Wickes. We did English with Holly and dance classes with Oti. We made memories.

We thought that by Autumn, it would be all over. Maybe we would have to wear masks and stand two metres apart in shops for a while, but the lockdowns and not being able to see our family and friends was over.

When Autumn rolled around and nothing much had changed, apart from the kids going back to school, things felt gloomy. We went through Christmas – no parties, no school fairs, no visits to Santa. No family visits.

And here we are, one year later – still in a lockdown.

I never thought I would see a day where a toddler would grab a face mask and know how to put it on. I never dreamed that my children would miss the best part of a year of school because of a virus. I never dreamed that I would go a year without seeing most of my family.

A year.

We’ve been one of the lucky ones. No one in our house has had the virus, that we know of. There are so many other people out there who can’t say the same. They have lost people they love to COVID, they have suffered long term health problems because of it.

One year of Coronavirus.