The extraordinary story of an ordinary family who gets to finally enjoy Covid Lockdown…

Well… lockdown has certainly been a roller-coaster for all of us, has it not? I haven’t heard from a single friend or family member who hasn’t had little life epiphanies in the last 8 weeks. Everyone has a little story to share, however mundane, however ordinary, and everyone, certainly everyone I have spoken to, from firemen to nurses, to teachers, to bankers, to lawyers, to at-home-dads and at-home-mums, we’ve all had a weird time indeed.

To say “We are all in this together” is right to a certain extent, but this over-used phrase perhaps sometimes sets an oblivious precedent - we aren’t really all in this together… Lockdown has definitely been more challenging for some than others. Of course it has. Some people have had to overcome tragedies, deep sadnesses, forced separations through social-distancing, inevitable heart-aches and imposed loneliness. Still… saying that we are in this together, is after-all perhaps just a metaphorical wave of kindness, a way of reaching-out, a way of saying “I know you and I come from different places, eat different foods, believe in different things, but Covid has imposed changes on my life just as it has on yours, regardless of those changes, and I want you to know that I care about you too…”

So we may be in this together to a certain extent, but here is a little family who did go through the start of lockdown in a very different way than I did. I celebrated lockdown with longer lunch hours and better quality time with my husband. They, on the other hand, started lockdown with frequent hospital visits.

Meet Rebecca, Nick & Toby.

Toby was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease on the very first day of lockdown. Blisters had appeared all over his 2 year old body, legs, mouth, ears… he struggled to walk, and was in more or less constant pain. The testing criteria at the beginning of lockdown was so strict that he hasn’t never been told how this all started for him and what his immune system was indeed fighting. All his mum and dad and the NHS could do was to keep treating him, help manage his pain and hope that this “whatever-it-is” passes soon.

And it did. It took a little time. It took a huge amount of tears, of frustration, of exceptional worry, of apprehension… but it eventually passed.

And so what we have here, 8 weeks later, is a little family, with a little boy, who can now finally enjoy what a lot of us have enjoyed in the last two months. They can enjoy slowing down. They can enjoy cuddles without time limits. They can enjoy aimless walks around the neighbour, waving at people they didn’t previously know or engaging with someone’s hobby - they had never known that only two streets away, someone actually had a boat in their garden, a boat that had a horn and would keep Toby endlessly entertained. They can develop a fascination for drains, for “I-spy”’s and for bees. They can finally enjoy just being. And they can also…. I guess… enjoy a visit from a photographer to help them celebrate that time of “ just being”.

So here is Rebecca, Nick and…. Toby. 8 weeks later and much happier.

If you would like your ordinary life documented during this unusual time and your story told, whatever your story is, however extraordinary or mundane it is, get in touch. I worked with Rebecca, Nick and Toby very safely, respecting 2m restrictions and stayed outside at all times.