An individual account of one family's coronavirus story. written by Grace Austin

Introduction

This blog is our stories of this time. My voice alone cannot do justice to the myriad of experiences happening everywhere, locally, nationally and internationally.

Within a few weeks life as we know it here in East Sussex and across Britain has changed beyond recognition.
Schools have closed; companies, businesses and workplaces large and small have closed; working from home has become the norm in the same space as childcare and alongside home schooling.
Households have shifted as families reassemble or dissemble; self isolating is literally isolating people from family and friends. The 'shielding' policy for the most vulnerable means this group should stay inside for 12 weeks, an impossible thought for so many of us to comprehend, three months trapped inside.
Care homes have shut their doors to visitors, cutting off people from their loved ones at their time of most need.
Shopping and daily exercise, the only reason to  leave our homes, are fraught with fears as social distancing is by consent not by control.
We understand how contagious this virus is. We know it is  everywhere.  
The UK death toll rises by the day, hundreds and hundreds every 24 hours.
Thursday night, tonight, across the country for the third week running people will come outside to clap, sound car horns, bang saucepans, for those key workers who care for the sick and dying, those essential workers who keep this country going. Society will coalesce around a common purpose for a few moments.  
But at every other moment we are coping as individuals, separate, diverse, managing as best we can in however ways we can, whichever ways we can, our own unique situations.

Here is the first of what I hope will be many more individual accounts reflecting these different stories,

Many thanks to Grace for her contribution which is an optimistic one. It feels apt to post this tonight as a sunny spring day draws to a close, whilst I wait for the Thursday 8pm applause to ring out around us even in our rural village, in the glow of a warm evening sunset . 

Keeping positive is hard in the face of continual bad news so thank you, Grace, for this story.



One family's Coronovirus story 

by Grace Austin                                         Post 1

In late February I began to feel unwell with headache, cough and flu like symptoms, particularly fatigue. Aware of the arriving pandemic, kept informed by friends in Italy who were already self isolating, I decided to stay at home whenever possible.  I did this with the exception of a couple of local events and two family meetings - one on March 1^st  when we met my three year old grandchild and parents at a local venue and a later midweek visit to London to see the other family with a 3 month old. We travelled to London by car, deciding against public transport.

By the second week of March I was clearly unwell but without a high temperature so stayed at home for about 10 days. During this time my husband who had no symptoms travelled North to see his father for a couple of days, fearing that this might be the last opportunity before Lockdown.  My friends rallied round on Whatsapp and Sms.

Towards the end of the the third week of March, my daughter who lives in London called. She and her partner and long awaited baby son would like to escape London before the imminent Lockdown. Her partner was disturbed by the aggression encountered  while shopping, and they realised that while their first floor flat is surrounded by parks and green space they might soon be unable to go to any of them. We have a self contained  annexe, usually let to Glyndebourne singers in the Summer. (No opera singers arriving this year) and the little family moved in on 19^th March.

My husband showed flu like symptoms on his return from his parental visit, and while I was recovering slowly he was still unwell when they arrived. As there is no antibody test yet available we will not know if we had Covid 19 or not. My husband attended an event on 8^th March with someone who was later diagnosed with Covid19. We decided to quarantine ourselves for at least 2 weeks so were only able to wave at our new neighbours across the garden. On 6^th April we agreed that we would now be able to enter each other's spaces, and that at last the grandparents could hold the baby.

My daughter and her partner are self employed. They had, until the Lockdown, well paid jobs in the Media and Music industries. As maternity pay for the self employed is so low my daughter had saved and budgeted for a 6 – 9 month maternity leave, which would finish in the early Autumn, when she had work scheduled. Her partner's plan had been to return to work incrementally with jobs in London before travelling abroad on tour. Of course this is not to be.

They are currently negotiating with their landlord's agent for a 50% rent reduction during the Lockdown, hoping that the self employed payments which are supposed to begin in June will then be accessible to her partner. The agent has been less than helpful, and government advice is unclear as to their rights.

They are resilient and creative people and the change in their circumstances has triggered a rethink of the plans for the future. Why return to London at all? If not where should they settle? Can they afford to buy a house locally? What will the music industry look like after the pandemic is over in the context of international travel restrictions and gatherings of people banned?

Meanwhile we are delighting in their company. We can relax in the garden and walk on the Downs. We are lucky to have financial security and the space to have them with us for as long as they need to be here.

My other daughter, living a 2 hour drive away, continues to work full time from home for a small arts organisation where she is a member of senior management. She is also caring for a bouncy 3 year old who used to attend nursery for 2 days a week. Her partner had a pivotal childcare role on the other 3 days but recently took a delivery and plant husbandry job for an organic grower for the two nursery days.

In this world turned up side down he is now a key worker (on minimum wage protected only by gloves as he delivers to the public  - albeit with social distancing) and has on his boss's request taken on another day's work. He is of course needed at home for the other days. While full time pay is welcome my daughter could manage if she was put on 80% furlough and finds herself in the invidious position of seeing this as preferable to juggling child care and the complex demands of her job.

(As a Trustee of a small museum I am fully aware of the issues these arts organisations are currently facing: balancing employment, furlough and possible redundancies with the survival of the organisation.)

We are in touch every other day or so by face time. We exchange videos, play games and sing songs and try to keep up with the family's life. We are used to seeing them every two weeks, and especially at this time of year, meeting in the country for birthday celebrations at bluebell time. We miss them very much.

We have managed to keep our shopping to a minimum, with trips every 2 or 3 days to our wonderful Corner Shop. We have only been once to a supermarket in a fortnight and shop at a local farm shop where possible. We have ordered a takeaway once a week for the past three weeks to support the excellent local caterers who deliver in the town. I have donated my very underused sewing machine to the the Scrubs effort.

My own life is one of privilege. I have a pension income, and while the letting of the annexe was central to my annual income projection we can survive without it. My husband works part time from home as CEO of an international organisation which is saving a lot of money at the moment by holding meetings remotely, with members from across the world unable to travel. I work in my allotment, cultivate seeds for planting out at home,  contribute to a WhatsApp sketch group every day, and work on creative writing projects with a weekly remote meeting. I play with my grandson and help with the family's day to day needs. We share cooking and meal times and take our daily walks together. It is as if we are on an extended holiday in the bright Spring. Birds are nesting in the garden. We have so far spotted in the garden brimstone, holy blue, red admiral, orange tip and cabbage white butterflies. We walk on the Downs and in the woods where the bluebells are beginning to bloom and the wild life is beginning to be less shy and often surprised to see us in the new quiet.

My overwhelming feeling is of relief and privilege in a world where inequality in terms of housing, income and access to basic resources is becoming ever more visible as the pandemic grows. How wonderful if the outcome of this event was significant structural and global change.

Many thanks, Grace.