Well what a year we have had. It started in January when my mum was taken
ill at my sister’s house. She’d been
staying there for Christmas. She spent a few days in hospital and went back to
my sister’s as they thought she was recovering well. She died on 8th January. My sister and I both agreed that we were glad
she hadn’t died at home all alone, although she has good neighbours who would
have acted if she didn’t show signs of being up and about. We had to wait until
February for the funeral as the coroner had a backlog – nothing to do with
covid yet.
Our flight to the UK, for the funeral, was delayed by 5
hours because of high winds but we managed to take off eventually. It was windy
in the UK too and there were lots of people milling around the airport as
flights were on hold or cancelled. My
nephew and his girlfriend were on the record breaking flight from the US –
blown over the Atlantic by the strong winds!
Rob was told not to go into work mid-March. We decided to treat him being home as a rehearsal
for retirement. The rehearsal went very
well. We got plenty of jobs done around the house and garden and as the weather
was good we sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine.
In May there was a bad storm and the drain couldn’t cope so
eventually the steps down to the back door flooded and came into the
house. At 1.30 am I was madly mopping up
water while Rob tried to bail the water away in the garden in the pouring
rain. After I’d finished that, I tidied
up and slipped on a step inside the house and cracked a rib. That was quite painful for several weeks.
Rob eventually went back into work for the summer, but for
shorter hours and then a four day week as we went into another lock down. Lockdowns involved filling out a form every time
we left the house in case we were stopped by the gendarmes. At the moment he
goes into work once a week. We’re free
to go where we want, but being older now we like to know that there is a café open
so that we can have a coffee and use the toilets. All cafes and restaurants are
closed at the moment, except for take away.
The curfew is from 6 pm to 6 am, which is okay at the moment as the sun
sets just after 6, as the days draw out we’re going to miss our evening walks
by the river.
We managed to visit Dom and J-M and the girls in September
for my birthday. It was very strange,
everywhere in Lille seemed so quiet. We
didn’t go shopping in the town centre like we usually do. We visited Ikea and it was so quiet – very unusual.
At the end of 2019 there was no way that anyone would have
imagined how life would change for everyone.
We’re fortunate as all of our relatives and friends have been safe and
sound. I hope that yours have been too.
