Dear LPG,

Now that I am feeling better, I just wanted to share this thought…

I don’t know about you, but the past two weeks or so have been seriously traumatic for all of us.  As pensioners we have been told that we are in the best possible position to contract the virus and so no matter if we have concerned family, live in a care home, sheltered accommodation or in our own homes it has all been about being alone for your own safety.

There are many categories of us self-isolators.  Some of us have been relatively lucky because we have avoided any real physical illness at all so far, which has left us just waiting it out while watching all the really frightening and depressing news broadcasts, and there will be a lot more of that to come .  Then there is another whole category of us oldies.  I am now talking about the ones who have had something which has not been so  good. 

I have, like many others I suspect, spent about two weeks unable to eat, answer the many phone calls from my friends, answer the simplest of questions about how I feel or do anything for myself.  I am now emerging from the other side of some health affliction which I believe had nothing to do with this virus but left me feeling pretty ill. 

I am sure that I am not alone (perhaps not the best choice of words) but it is interesting to sit up and observe the world after having missed a week or two of its turning.  For all that has happened to me, if I turn off the news and appreciate that I can actually taste what I put in my mouth again after days of never thinking I would ever be able to experience that sensation.   I can actually understand what is going on around me and make decisions about what I want to do again however petty.  In fact, just being able to do all those things that I have taken for granted for so long have taken on a whole new significance.  

I just want to say a big ‘thank you ‘to all the people who got me through all this, and remind all the people who have been where I have been that, when they are now sitting up in bed, feeling better but bored, on their own going out of their minds because they feel that there is absolutely nothing to do, now is the time to catch up on all those phone calls and spend a week or so thanking everyone who got you through it.  Including whichever God you believe in!  

FB, Honor Oak