‘FAMILY SAW US THROUGH LOCKDOWN’
Survey tells how readers have been affected by coronavirus
IT was more than six months ago when the UK was put into lockdown with fears of the impact that would have on mental health, wellbeing and everyday life.
Now The Big Conversation survey by The News reveals how readers have been coping.
It has shown how our families have been the most important thing to get us through – a feeling endorsed by Louise Roberts.
She said the restrictions made her family life as ‘close to perfect’ as ever – strengthening bonds between her and her daughters Megan and Amy.
However, the survey of more than 1,000 readers also reveals the fears of those who lost many of their freedoms and how they feel going forward into a ‘new normal’.
It’s like everything got better and something or someone transformed the way my girls are with each other. We’re now the closest we’ve ever been Mum Louise Roberts on the ‘positive’ side-effect of lockdown
MAKING memories with family is the vital ingredient to a good quality of life, a new post-lockdown survey of Portsmouth has found.
The Big Conversation, led by The News, discovered a resounding 76.51 per cent of readers believe visiting relatives is crucial to their personal wellbeing.
More than 1,000 people completed the survey in September as this newspaper took the city’s temperature after months of gruelling Covid-19 restrictions.
It followed a total national lockdown between March and June, during which Britons could only leave their homes twice daily and meet one other person outside.
The Big Conversation also found visiting family as the pastime Portsmouth people feel safest undertaking now the strictest coronavirus measures have been lifted.
A total of 78.2 per cent of respondents said they feel comfortable or very comfortable meeting up with their nearest and dearest, compared to a fifth who do not. Faced with an indefinite clampdown on their freedoms the Roberts family, from Paulsgrove, feared home tensions could erupt as they stayed cooped up indoors.
But mum Louise, 35, says lockdown has made her family life as close to ‘perfect' as ever – strengthening bonds between her and her daughters, Megan, 14 and Amy, 18.
She told The News: ‘I came out of a 16-year relationship in January, 2019 and lockdown has turned around what was a year of emotional and financial upset.
‘It’s like everything got better and something or someone transformed the way my girls are with each other.
‘Until lockdown they never got on, they would bicker and argue and they even had each other blocked on social media. That’s how bad it was.
‘We’re now the closest we have ever been and they’re good friends and help each other out. People wouldn’t believe it.’
Lockdown brought more uncertainty to Louise’s home than most when it was imposed on March 23 because Amy was five months pregnant.
She is now a proud mother to a nine-week-old baby boy, Elijah, whose tender presence during lockdown would become the glue that bonds her now-changed family.
Amy said: ‘I think what brought us together was the baby. He changed everything and everyone started to get along better and talk more.
‘Me and my sister never got along until the baby was born but I’ve become a lot closer with her in lockdown.
‘We talk much more and I know I can rely on her to help with the baby if I need her to.’
Strict Covid-19 restrictions at Queen Alexandra Hospital meant Amy had to attend her antenatal appointments alone during lockdown.
But Louise, who was her designated birthing partner, said the government’s Covid19 clampdown gave the family a pregnancy experience they seldom could have imagined when Amy discovered she was pregnant in December.
‘If we didn’t have the lockdown and Amy was pregnant, I might not have seen the whole pregnancy – we wouldn’t have had that time together,’ Louise said.
‘My family means everything to me – I live for them – and I now live for my lovely grandson too.’
It’s been said many times before but it is still hard to fathom what we as a city, country and world have been through in 2020. Coronavirus has been devastating on so many fronts – the number of infections, the number of families robbed of loved ones and the number of people’s livelihoods adversely affected by the impact on the economy.
There have been many positive stories to come out of the virus as well – people, total strangers, going the extra mile in their bid to protect those who were most vulnerable and those who were shielding.
But today The News can throw new light on how many in our communities have been coping.
Our Big Conversation survey saw more than 1,000 people respond to give details of how their lives were – and still are – being affected.
On the whole people are still very wary when it comes to going out – whether that be to a pub, restaurant, attraction or simply just shopping.
Yet one of the most telling statistics to come from the survey is the role family played in people’s wellbeing.
It is not always easy being cooped up with others – even family – for weeks on end.
But for the Roberts family the lockdown proved to be the ‘best’ thing that could have ever happened to them.
Mum Louise said her daughters Megan and Amy didn’t get on pre-lockdown but now they are a changed family – helped in part by older daughter Amy giving birth to her son in the middle of it all.
There are, of course, many aspects of life and businesses which have been hit hard.
Coronavirus appears as if it is here to stay and we have all had to adapt our lives accordingly over the past few months.
There is no guarantees we will be free of it any time some but the resolve and determination of the people of Portsmouth has shone bright in the past six months.