Chronicles of COVID-19

Title

Solene, Cork City

Contributor

Solene

Subject

COVID-19 (Disease)

Coverage

Ireland; Cork; 2020s:

Date

20 April 2020

Language

English

Creator

Cork Folklore Project

Rights

Cork Folklore Project

Description

GENERAL PHYSICAL LOCATION RIGHT NOW

Cork South Parish, Red Abbey area

USUAL LOCATION

Home is Cork, where I arrived 14 years ago and have a house, partner and daughter (in chronological order). It is also the suburbs of Paris, where I grew up, and bits of me linger in Tokyo and Strasbourg, where I spent formative years.

Q. 1 STAGES

At first it sounded like SARS, or the bird flu from a few years back. A worrying virus that started in East Asia, but that, surely, would peter out in the same manner (although I have never understood how these were controlled). Then reports started to come in of contagion amongst travelling businessmen. It had left Wuhan and its markets and everyday people. The first cases in Europe were worrying but again, I preferred to believe it was controllable, and probably not really deadly in a European health service context. But it suddenly exploded in Italy, seemingly from a few people to hundreds, and thousands within weeks. The East of France and Spain followed suit, and it became really frightening. People were dying. Pre-existing conditions were reported over and over again, like a mantra, but then young, healthy people started to be listed as casualties as well. I am over 40, with a well-managed pre-existing condition. I alternate between feeling strong and healthy and believing that it is just random and I might die next week. Children were described as super spreaders (which I understand is generally not true although they are more likely to be asymptomatic). Social media became flooded with finger pointing and moralising stances - people out drinking, children in supermarkets, hikers on crowded paths, groups of youth, panic buyers. "Stay the fuck home" is a common slogan, even amongst people who admit going for long walks. Virtue signalling abounds. Schools and crèches closing seemed like a good idea. Limit the interaction between families. Again, we had seen the pattern in Italy so there was no surprise. We shared a child-minder with friends for two weeks, which at the time felt like an acceptable solution, with three cautious, trustworthy families who pledged to not meet anyone else. But even this felt somewhat wrong. It came with guilt, in case it led to more of us becoming infected, and I was partly relieved when it became impossible. When the lockdown was declared in Ireland it seemed inevitable. My workmates had started to panic. A colleague had been in tears, feeling that still coming to work was putting people at risk (her family, acquaintances, herself, society at large), that it was selfish and irresponsible that we were still doing so. Meanwhile, I found my bosses scrambling to reorganise the office, prepare for the lockdown that was sure to come, sending people home to test remote working, organising software licenses, brace for the obligatory loss of business, while trying to reassure staff and provide the right level of information - enough to make people feel they knew what was going to happen, but not enough to worry them into paralysis. The phrase of the moment, if course, is "flatten the curve". Slow the spread of the virus not to overwhelm the health service. I assume we wait for a vaccine, proven treatment, or simple exhaustion of the country's mental or financial health, whichever comes first. Long term lockdown, with its thousands of unemployed, business closures, and breakdown of the social fabric doesn't seem sustainable, but the alternative is just as grim: exponential cases numbers, and deaths that would be avoidable if the HSE wasn't flooded. It feels like a balancing act between two impossible choices. I mostly read the Guardian, the Irish Times and listen to France Inter, the French public broadcaster. The tone is shifting week on week. Sometimes cautiously optimistic, as the curves are indeed plateauing in some European countries, then grim - no vaccine in sight, healthy pregnant women dying after giving birth (my sister, my cousin and a friend are pregnant, and we were hoping to be but have put this plan on hold). Reports said masks were not advised. Now they seem to be, to protect others. I have also learnt that immunity after recovery is not guaranteed, or could be short lived. Some articles suggest that we might have to live with this coronavirus for years / decades. The list of symptoms is also evolving. A dry cough, a temperature, but now also mental confusion in some, or kidney damage, feet lesions, loss of smell and taste, nausea or diarrhoea. Friends who had it described it as a very bad flu with chest pains. Articles talk about patients placed prone on their bed, their lungs full of liquid, drowning on their own immune response. Lungs that look like glass on X-rays. The US are providing a particularly outrageous side show, with an utterly despicable president, and soaring numbers especially amongst the poorer neighbourhoods. There is very little reporting on Africa or other Asian countries, aside from China and Korea. It feels like a tragedy waiting to happen, or possibly already happening but unreported due to lack of resources or lack or journalists on the ground. It seems that we are all waiting but there will be no easy, convenient end, just a gradual transition into a new, harsher, normal.

Q. 2 EVERYDAY ROUTINE

Our day used to be: alarm clock at 7:30, helped prepare our toddler, then dropped by her dad at crèche for 8:15, while I go back to bed to catch up on sleep (toddler wakes up multiple times at night and as a breast feeder I do the night shift). My partner went to work straight away, and I went into my own office for 9:30. I ran out at 5 to collect our child at 5:15, and then took her to the park until 6, or directly home. My partner came back at around 6 or 6:30, one of us would cook dinner, and I would go to bed with our child at around 8:30, my partner joining us a bit later. We would go to Kerry to visit my partner's parents once a month, and members of my family would visit on a regular basis (maybe 8 visits per year between various people). We would go to France twice to three times a year, with another trip to another country for holidays. We used to go to the restaurant once a week, and shop mostly in the English Market, Lidl, and the Coal Quay Market at the weekend.
Now we both work from home and the crèche is closed. My partner gets up at 7 to start working at 7:30. I take care of your child until 10, and then we swap until 12:30. Again, I take care of our child until 1:30, we have lunch together, he works for another hour and I then work from 3 to 5:30. He then works another hour and a half. This means we are both short about an hour a day (my contract is 29h a week), which we make up by working during nap time for me, at night for him, and at the weekend for both of us. We are lucky our employers are flexible. During the day, my partner takes our child for a walk. Our house is very small and we have no garden. I usually don't get a chance to get out. We do most of the shopping online from Neighbourhood, and collect twice a week around the corner from us. Additional shopping is in the Quay Coop or Bradley's on North Main Street. We avoid the large supermarkets. I have also been in the English Market twice, but despite the limited numbers some areas feel a bit overcrowded and the staff very exposed. While this is expensive, the convenience, and the support given to local producers feels worth it for the time being. At the weekend, we go for one long walk (the Lough, River walk along the North Channel, or Tramore Valley Park), and generally stay indoors. We use video calling a lot with my family, something that only happened once every few months before. We had never done group video calls either. On the flip side, we used to see our friends a lot, have dinner parties at home and go to parties, but we are struggling to stay in touch with people who are not immediate family. My salary has been cut by 30%, but we estimate that we will still make a saving, between not having to pay for the crèche, no restaurants and no driving to work for my partner.

Q. 3 GROUPS

No Response.

Q. 4 WAYS WE TALK

There are new expressions. Covidiot. Social distancing. Facebook groups are thriving, much more active, with generally a lot of light hearted humour in the groups I follow: I am mostly a member of parenting groups and people are clearly trying to reach out and lighten the mood. There seem to have been suggestions regarding putting rainbows and teddy bears in the window, but I haven't seen it in the city centre. Similarly, I can't hear anyone clapping for the HSE at 8pm in our neighbourhood. I see people reposting articles relating to 5G masts transmitting the virus, or politicians profiteering from the situation. People seem to be at a loss for words about the situation. Conversations in the street peter out quickly into general shoulder shrugging and look to the sky. Some elderly neighbours of ours are visited by their children almost every day. They stand by their front door while their (adult) children stand in the middle of the road for a chat. We don't cross the road but wave when we see acquaintances. Our child was mentioning her friends every day, now it is only occasionally.

Q. 5 COMMUNITY RESPONSE

No Response.

Q. 6 THOUGHTS AND PREOCCUPATIONS

I am surprised by how quickly new patterns of disgust have emerged. Door handles and lift buttons are absurd now for instance, and became so in a matter of days. I am also much more judgmental of others, and can even feel some level of revulsion if someone comes too close. I am looking at writing a will, which I planned to before but was always putting off. Now it seems urgent. I believe that by the time this crisis is over, I will be too old to have a second child. A pregnancy was already a slightly unlikely proposition given my history, but now this is turning into a fact. I worry slightly about the impact this will have on our child. We'll she mistrusts strangers? Will it impact how she plays, how she interacts with people?

Q. 7 SIMILARITY TO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

No Response.

Q. 8 CHALLENGES AND COPING

No Response.

Q. 9 THE FUTURE

No Response.

Q. 10 IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT SPRINGS TO MIND?

No Response.


Q. 11 IN A NUTSHELL

No Response.

age

36-50

gender

Female