Will the lockdown ever end for folk like me?

With no freedom in sight, Hunter Davies is worried his generation faces a future stuck in limbo

Iam one of those 1.5million on the Government’s most vulnerable list. Weeks ago, we were told that certain people would get a letter. When mine didn’t arrive, I assumed that at 84, with a triple bypass 18 months ago, I wasn’t so special after all. But now, amid the sharp rise in care home deaths and a suggestion that at-risk groups like the elderly may remain locked down the longest, my letter has at last arrived.

In fact two letters have come – one from my GP and one from my local hospital. For 12 years, I have been taking an anti-arthritis drug, which has worked miracles with no side effects; now the hospital has scared the life out of me by warning it contains something that suppresses the immune system. So obviously if I get the virus, I will be a goner.

Both long letters contain the same dreadful warnings, and each says I should stay at home for 12 weeks, avoid all face to face contact. Where do I go? Who do I see?

The message from the Government these past four weeks has been pretty clear: old people must on no account get ill, but if you do, through your own stupid fault, we can’t really do anything to test or help, so please don’t bother the NHS, your doctor or any hospital. Just stay at home, or in a home, and die quietly. And now with no end in sight, could it be we will be left behind as the lockdown slowly lifts for those who aren’t seen as old or vulnerable? I honestly feel that the old, in care homes particularly, but also those on their own have been forgotten. Folks like me, a widower, single, stuck at home on their own, don’t appear to exist. After all these decades paying tax – and still paying, as even at my enormous age I am still working – I still feel I have something important to contribute.

I am lucky to live in my own house, and have a garden. My children and grandchildren call, bring me food, shout over the garden gate. But what I miss are face-to-face chats, hugs and cuddles. Alas, I split

Six months locked down could be a significant portion of what is left of my life

with my girlfriend of two years just before lockdown, such bad timing, so I don’t even have video contact with her. That could have been such a comfort. I was hoping when this is over to get fixed up with a chum again. In the flesh.

But really when will that be? And will I still be here?

The possibility looms over me of being deemed to be too vulnerable for the lockdown to be lifted until there is some kind of vaccine or antibody test available.

If it means six more months of being locked down, that could be a significant portion of what is left of my life. I really can’t afford to miss all that living, all that fun and action, affection and enjoyment, which till now I was sure was in my future.