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Old 21 Mar 2020, 10:24   #34
Clare
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Join Date: 31 Mar 2001
Location: By a river, near Fort William in view of Ben Nevis
Posts: 9,969
Our office has been open to the public throughout. We've had no cleaning or protective supplies provided, we've had to buy our own and while we've not seen corona virus or covid 19 on a death certificate, we've seen clues on two of them. Great big obvious clues. Notifiable disease boxes and reporting to authorities. We've no protection other than the antibacterial (it's a virus!) wipes we've manged to get from almost empty supermarket shelves. Most of our marriages are now postponed. Talking to heartbroken couples who were due to marry in a few days is terrible.

My team are exhausted and abandoned by senior management. I've almost lost it with people coming in to the office to pay a bill that could have been paid over the phone. I don't say anything but my thoughts feel so loud.

I lost a friend this week. she died in the early hours of yesterday morning. Today would have been her 40th birthday. She leaves a husband and two young daughters. Tomorrow is mothers' day. (I daren't see mine). Carla was a friend from anti-Brexit demos. She lived in Luton. She had suffered repeated bouts of pneumonia and was diagnosed only last week with lung cancer. She posted an eloquent scream of fear from her hospital bed that she couldn't catch a break as she now had corona virus and was not expected to survive the night. She survived long enough to marry her partner then slipped into a coma. Her name is Carla and she was my friend. I need to say this as the press lump the suffering into a nameless mass. They may have "underlying health issues" but they are people, with children, spouses, friends, workmates. She has a name.


"I've had many sobering thoughts in my life....
....it was them what drove me to drink!" [drunk]

Grandad, Only Fools and Horses (UK sitcom)
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