It's hard to believe that 23 March 2021 represents a year since the start of Lockdown 1.0 ... and yet in other ways it feels like 'pandemic life' has been going on forever. Marie Curie are encouraging a 'National Day of Reflection' to "reflect on our collective loss, support those who’ve been bereaved, and hope for a brighter future."
As I reflect on what, for us all has been an incredibly tough year, I think of those of us at Services For Education, along with other family and friends who have lost loved ones during this past year. When my mum died so suddenly in May 2020, I found myself joining, what has sadly become a significant proportion of our society, navigating grief in Lockdown. We all share the cautious hope, that restrictions will very slowly beginning to ease - and that perhaps one day soon we can mark and celebrate the lives of our loved ones, and process our grief in more 'normal' settings with extended family and friends. There seems an added poignancy in the fact that today I got my first dose of the vaccine.
For today though, I have planted a new Camellia shrub in my garden - providing a lasting memory, and for now, an encouragement of brighter days to come. As with many of us, Lockdown has been an opportunity to exercise a different part of my brain, and so whilst in many ways it is impossible to do so, I have attempted to capture elements of the last year in this poem ...
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