So this is something that I wrote the other night but I thought that maybe I should leave it for a day or two. You know…ease everyone into a false sense of security and then hit you with something heavy. I haven’t edited it so it’s probably a bit all over the place, but that is where I was at.
29.3.20 10.27pm
I hugged my parents last night for what was probably the last time in months. This virus isn’t something that I can escape. One of my friends that I used to work with snapchatted me the other day, she and her daughter might have it. Another one is self-isolating with her partner and kids out of fear that the kids will get sick, meanwhile her mum and brother are being tested.
Every time I go to work I’m putting myself at risk. I’m putting my own partner at risk. I work in a supermarket ffs. I have to remind people constantly to keep their distance, not just from other but from the team members. These customers wearing masks and gloves come within two feet of us to ask questions. I hate people I don’t know doing this when there isn’t a pandemic, and yet here we are, in the middle of one and someone in gloves and a face mask are still doing it. Irony or just thoughtless? Both?
The biggest risk to my family right now is me. My sister works in childcare but it’s only a matter of days before she’s out of a job. My brothers and sister-in-law work together with like, four other people. They’re having their temperatures taken every morning they come to work. My dad is a cop but he’s lucky in a way, he works in a building with very few other people around him and doesn’t have to deal with the general public except for on the phone. I miss his work stories.
My partner is working from home and doesn’t leave the house, he’s going absolutely stir crazy. Mum is the same, except without the stir crazy. She loves being by herself. After 33 years of having at least one child and a husband in the house, she’s enjoying the peace and quiet.
So that just leaves me. It wouldn’t even be just my family that I would affect either. I’ve stopped seeing my family for everyone’s sake but I don’t know when my partner will stop going for his weekly dinner with his parents. I’m hoping soon. If I get it, he gets it. There is no real way around it unless he moves back to his parents but even then, we might already be carrying it and not know. Incubation period.
The prime minister has just announced the limits on social gatherings this afternoon and as I pulled onto my street I counted six houses with extra cars in the driveway. Just on my street, on the way to my house. It’s not a long street and I live in the middle of it. Six.
Right now I should’ve been having another drink with my brother while my nephew fought sleep and my parents wondered when us youngest two would stop fighting (probably never but it’d be weird if we did). But I’m not. I’m preparing for another week of work. Because despite in the past being told that I should “get a real job” I’m now classed as an essential worker.
For anyone who is reading this. Please, stay home. Do one big shop so you’ve got enough food to last you for a few weeks. Do some bulk cooking and freeze it. Please just stay home as much as you can. Stop making the lives of doctors and nurses across the country harder. Stop coming to the shops everyday and putting everyone at risk. Stop abusing those of us who are putting our health at risk so that your lives are made a little easier.
Oh. One last thing.
Stop hoarding toilet paper.
Sincerely,
Tired, sad and really freaking stressed out.
S.J Smith Books 