Right back in the firing line
Kevin Mulligan admits that like other over 70s the ongoing pandemic has him scared
We’re right back in the firing line, us over 70’s.
Pre- COVID-19 we were spectators on life, now we’re participants.
And there is little point in hiding the fact we’re scared.
Somehow we managed our way through the first lockdown, content in the knowledge that if we did as we were asked we’d be ok.
Now with the second wave with deaths and infections rising we’re increasingly concerned.
Of course we must hide that anxiety from family for it is not in our DNA to reveal our emotions.
We camouflage any tell tale symptoms by taking some Panadol not to worry the family while praying that it is not the dreaded disease.
Nor do we express our deep rooted fear that for us, this may be as good as it gets.
With no vaccine on the immediate horizon, and our politicians telling us that we may have to live with this virus for a year or more, many know that they do not have that time.
We know, and understand, that young people don’t fully understand our fears.
And why should they.
We undoubtedly appreciate their concern, and their mostly laudable attempts to protect us, the elderly and the health service, by obeying the social distance rules.
They however cannot fully comprehend the impact that COVID has had on the lives of us pensioners.
They know the chances are that if they contract COVID their symptoms will likely be mild. We know that the consequences could be fatal. For that reason there is little doubt that the vast majority of over 70’s, like myself, now live in a state of sustained anxiety because of the pandemic.
We find it difficult to maintain a balance between hope and despair.
Sadly the series of family tragedies that engulfed the country in the last week hasn’t helped, for there seems to be no end to the suffering, no limit to the sense of loss.
The daily, hourly onslaught from the media outlets on the latest number of deaths and infected does not help.
To that end we must limit the intake of news about the pandemic, and if only, we could find -
other topics, to fill the news broadcasts it would be a help.
Perhaps Donald will give us all a lift this week and go quietly.
But I wouldn’t bet on it.
It would help too that the few with whom we have contact, family, and friends who remember to phone, would realise that there is more to this world than the coronavirus, even though it hasn’t felt like that since March.
We, the over 70’s, now once again thrust into the front line of this battle, must work hard to lift our spirits by knowing that we have sacrificed too much to let it slip now.
This pandemic, like all pandemics, will pass. And when it does the challenge will be to complete the bucket list that we all should be writing.
Buoyed by the knowledge that we are all better off financial having spent little since March - obviously because we couldn’t go anywhere - we should start thinking of the exotic holiday we always wanted.
Maybe the top item on the bucket list will be a lot less ambitious and less expensive, such a night out in a restaurant, a drink with friends, or a return to a football game.
COVID has taught us over 70’s new skills, we’re all now more tech friendly, eventually mastering the tablet to watch Mass and pay our bills online.
We have studied and learned all the jargon of COVID and listened to more medical experts on infectious diseases that it would not be beyond some - those brighter than me - to write a thesis on the subject.
We’re fitter, having walked more and drunk less.
We’re becoming more ambitious and expert at cooking - needs must.
We’re getting better - well some of us - at managing our thoughts and emotions for we realise the vital need to keep going to safeguard our mental health.
We’re the generation brought up to get on with life no matter what, and while COVID has seriously rattled us, we’ll do our best to survive for as Woody Allen once said ‘it’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens’.