Through the Eye of the Storm
Sarah Tully, PTS Manager at Cherrytree shares a personal account of her own tough time, the realisation of what is really needed from people, organisations and the system during these times.
So, the last few weeks of Coronavirus has been one long.. I hesitate to say rollercoaster ride, because that is actually fun. No, it’s been one long spiralling ball of loss, plummeting down a depreciating hillside.
First it was the small inconveniences. No pasta, or at least only yucky wholemeal pasta! The possibility of no loo roll – I warned my kids we might have to cut up newspaper like in the “olden days,” but the need never really materialised. Then it was “don’t mingle.” I was a bit reticent to give up my right to gather, after all it’s my human right isn’t it?
At that stage it was still almost fun, novel even. A group of us went into the woods with some bevvies to celebrate my daughter’s birthday- yeah look at us being resourceful but still managing to enjoy ourselves!
And at work it became how to navigate the changing unknown and create policies to make us feel in control.
In the background we had the uncomfortable facts coming from China – that’s a long way away. Italy is a bit closer, but maybe it’s just because they’ve managed it wrong.
Then my dream family holiday got cancelled and I grieved that. Three weeks in Sri Lanka; a special time for my family to get together. I’d been planning it for the best part of a year. I was devastated. This was more than inconvenient.
And then the schools shut – WTF!
And then my dad got ill.
He wouldn’t go to hospital and the paramedics wouldn’t take him. I tried to stay away for fear of bringing him an unwelcome present, but last Friday it became too much to bear listening to his and his wife’s distress, so I pegged it down the motorway to London to find him close to death in his bed.
“I don’t feel well enough to go to hospital,” his words barely audible.
“Dad, you’re not supposed to feel well when you go to hospital. Don’t worry I’ll stay with you dad,” I reassured him.
I went with him in the ambulance kitted up like anonymous cybermen. He was sat up on the trolley, but I had to hold onto him on the bends for fear of him falling off, he was so frail.
When we got to the hospital we waited in a queue. It was like a scene from the Handmaid’s tale. Men with walkie talkies in charge of our liberty. And then came the news that I wasn’t allowed in.
I haven’t seen him since and that was Friday and it’s Monday now. The only news we’ve had was yesterday on the 100th call we made someone answered and clumsily told us that dad had Coronavirus and is on oxygen.
We wept for him and for what it means for us.
The hardest part is thinking of him on his own.
So, we visualise him comfortable and warm and getting the help that he needs. That’s all we have.
I find myself waiting to hear of my father’s lonely death. I am worried my step- mother will also fall ill, or me. I can’t say I’m not afraid.
I am confined to this small flat, sleeping on the sofa without my things, without my food and without my children and family. And I can’t go home.
I am on my knees.
I could say that this is a living nightmare and it is, but that wouldn’t be the whole picture.
In between the grief and worry I have got to know my step mum better…like really better. We’ve laughed a lot and I’ve had the opportunity to wait on her for a change. Her having looked after my dad these last few years and her mum before that. I’ve discovered Wanstead flats where the blossom’s out. I’ve made two new friends, downstairs-virtually- who have offered to get us things and an amazing ex-military male nurse who has fully taken this on, organising rotas etc.
What I thought I needed to get through this was to close my front door and baton down the hatches and hope for the best.
I thought I just needed it to all be over, quickly, so I could have my friends round and get drunk again. I thought I needed a three week holiday on a tropical island to get close to my family – It would still be nice, but this has made us closer, if not physically. Even my 15-year-old has been texting me and he rang me to ask about his pocket money – I think he’s grieving his old life!
My friends and family have been fantastic. Really empathetic and sympathetic and there for me.
But through all of this these are the things that I want and from people and systems:
- For someone to hear me say I’m not ok
- For someone to believe me when I say I am ok
- Information
- For people to send me funny stories/videos
- To hear about other people’s stories
- For people not to feel so sorry for me they can’t tell me about them
- To ask me what I need
- To be real
- Dark humour, especially about death
- Those texts which say you are amazing/ you are strong/ you can do it
- For people not to transfer their own grief onto me
- Expertise and connection from professionals
- Practical help
- Not having to keep repeating my story
- Exercise
- Nature
- Activity
- Counting my blessings
- Acknowledging that there are people worse off around the globe e.g. In Syria
- For people to not need “updating,” if I don’t want to
- If I break down, to not think that’s the only way I am
- For me to help others too
- Netflix
- Love
- Music
Yesterday I felt shite. Really shite.
Today my new London neighbour has bought me an avocado (I know, poncy under the circumstances but this reminds me of my old life).
For now I have chosen to reframe my situation. I am on a reading and writing retreat and a holiday from the daily load of washing my family produces. My dad has gone away to the best place possible for the best treatment in the world to give him the best possible chance.
Reflecting on what I need during this time has reinforced how important it is for us, as individuals and organisations working alongside people experiencing tough times, to be person-led, to listen, to be real and do our best to provide the support that a person needs, rather than the support the system predicts is needed.
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