The vaccine came in 2021. It changed everything and was a relief for most. Families need to eat. People have houses, children, jobs to...

July brings heat, and I am still numb. Tragedy beyond understanding hit in March, and you would have been bowed under the weight of it. I...

Your funeral was a small affair. No wake. Only thirty allowed. And live streamed. We did all the things that people do. Chose music....

Darling, you passed away in the early hours of yesterday morning, Saturday 26th December. I’m in isolation, following the fourteen-day...

I wake at 00:30. As I enter your room, I can hear your regular noisy breathing punctuated by the oxygen machine. I sit with you quietly....

Christmas Day begins gently. All is calm and it starts bright. I open our present to you, a pair of cotton pyjamas, burgundy, paisley...

You’re not eating and I’m not hungry. Without food to prepare the day is full of emptiness. I’m so tired and I can’t sleep. I’m shut away...

I woke at 05:30 and found you on the floor. I tried to get you back into bed. I thought I was stronger than this. I had to call...

The boiler stopped pumping heat, and you stopped speaking today. The family rushed heaters over, and I kept your room warm. God, but you...

This is the actual longest night. Winter Solstice. I am awake in it. Wiccans may recognise the words. I woke at 04:30 in the early hours...

You came home today. For us, it followed two days of hurry up and wait. You couldn’t be discharged until there was a hospital bed and...

And then I saw you. Because you were ‘end of life’ and were testing negative, the kind, helpful sister of the ward allowed us to see you...

They rang today and said they don’t expect you to get better. They used an odd phrase. Three words, benign in themselves, combining...

The following posts are from a piece of writing I began when my father fell ill with covid in the autumn of 2020.