Care for each other and we will get through this pandemic - Christa Ackroyd

Are you clinging desperately onto medium, where you can still meet with six friends to discuss how fed up you all are?

Perhaps like me in Calderdale you are on level high where you can meet up in a garden, but have to be fed up in your own home or with your own household, who I am sure are as equally fed up as you. Or are you entering the tier of being downright totally fed up?

It’s no joke is it? We are all weary and the dark nights don’t help our mood. But we can and will get through this. We have no alternative.

Cast your minds back to the lockdown in spring. The Dunkirk spirit kicked in and we cleared out the cupboards, gardened as though our lives depended on it and tackled DIY jobs we never thought capable of, knowing we could be stuck in them for a very long time. Just not, perhaps, this long.

Many of us put to the back of our minds the warnings that have now come to pass of a second wave, which would see hospitals filling up, infection rates rising and the fear that all our effort and sacrifices have been in vain. Well, they haven’t been. And we must keep on going.

I have to confess there are some days I have not felt like getting out of bed and can hardly be bothered to run a comb through my hair. And lipstick makes such a mess of the inside of your mask, doesn’t it? But I refuse to believe we won’t get there. How, I am not sure.

When is an even trickier question. But get there we will. While the politicians argue over our fate and the newspaper headlines shout ‘back to square one’ I want to concentrate on all we have gained along the way in this beautiful county of ours. We are far from being back to square one.

This week my lovely friend Harry Gration announced he is leaving Look North. He was inundated with messages, so many he was overwhelmed and somewhat emotional. People wanted him to know they will miss him. We have arranged to meet up. We don’t know where and we don’t know when, as the song goes, but we both agree that our friendship is important. And never more so than now.

Look where we live. Look at the birds fattening themselves up for winter (I fear I am joining them). This week there were five deer in the woods behind the back of our house. The colours of the trees are spectacular. As the nights draw in we can light the fire and sit back and wait for better times.

There are many people not so fortunate. I am thinking about those in our hospitals, those who are ill and those who are preparing for a hard winter caring for them. Those who have lost people they love to this dreaded virus. I am thinking of all those living rough on the streets. At least as winter beckons we have a roof over our heads. But I agree it is hard to stay positive.

So let us concentrate on the things we promised ourselves we would never forget when we clapped for carers and thought it would be a matter of weeks, not months, until we were out the other side. The vast majority of people are good, and most people do care.

This week on a village Facebook page, one elderly lady was honest enough to admit that she was dreading the thought of tougher measures that would see her alone. It is worth reading. Especially by those who suggest locking the elderly away and continuing with their lives unhindered.

This is her message. “I am 83 years old and Covid-19 has put paid to all the cultural and interesting events which make life more meaningful for me: history, music, poetry and book groups. All cancelled. I recognise I am in the most vulnerable age group but pleasurable interaction with fellow human beings cannot be underestimated. I take two walks in the countryside daily. These are a constant joy. I have seen a fox, a badger, and innumerable squirrels.

“I have appreciated the abundant bird life which is all around us, from witnessing the springtime mating dances of the lapwings near the moors and the welcome arrival of the swifts, house martins and swallows. I have taken pleasure in watching blue tits, great tits, wagtails and the occasional glimpse of a great spotted woodpecker, a nuthatch and hovering kestrels. In spite of these perennial joys I crave contact with the wider world.

"I am back to my solitary travels, merely acknowledging fellow walkers I see on a daily basis and dread the onset of winter.”

So true for so many. But this elderly pensioner hadn’t reckoned with community spirit coming to the fore. A local beautician invited her for a cuppa and a free treatment.

Others arranged to meet (socially distanced of course) for a walk. Some told her of outdoor activities on which they would join her. Many more simply offered to be there on the phone to talk. Hundreds of messages saying you are not alone. As one lovely lady found out, help and companionship are only a text or phone call away. If we dare ask for it. And ask we must.

For love is not on lockdown. Caring has not been cancelled. Being kind has not gone out of fashion. It is still there hidden behind the masks.

We may have little or no control over what they decide in the corridors of power but we can make a difference to our friends, our loved ones and our communities. And

that, my friends, is what will see us through.

Suddenly I don’t feel as fed up. And all because of the kindness of strangers who reached out to one elderly lady to say we are here.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson