Connection

When our lives were transformed by the arrival of Covid 19 into the world none of us new what to expect. You would have to be 103 and have decent mental faculties to remember the last pandemic to create similar damage namely ‘Spanish Flu’.

My late Wife Shan and I shared a love for 1 1970’s TV favourites in common, ‘Upstairs Downstairs’. During one episode the son of the Bellamy household, James, played by Simon Williams, lost his Wife to Spanish Flu. This is what we see happening through out the world today as Covid 19 comes into a community and finds the weak spots and strikes.

When the virus was first mentioned the government said that the plan was to find who had symptoms and trace who they were connected with. As time went on and Covid 19 gained a stronger hold it was decided that connection was to become a dirty word. It was decided that the one thing which we all need as humans, family and friends, were to be available only remotely. Lockdown became a reality as people of all ages, sexes, classes and ethnicity fell victim. The experts in the science which was to keep the community as safe as possible wanted us to stay at home and starve COVID-19 of the main thing it wants connection with new victims.

I am sure that most of us would agree that lock down has been tough. In the UK we are starting our third . Thankfully, the vast majority of the public are keeping to the instructions and the pandemic is starting to lose its speed. Some nations are loosening the restrictions and we watch with interest what this does. At least we do have social media to enable those we love to keep in contact until the day arrives when society can appear at large again.

Before my Wife Shan and I became a couple I knew little about the city of Wolverhampton apart from Wolves and the Molineux. Now 13 years have passed and I have a strong connection. Whereas my home for 30 years, Colwyn Bay, had become a part of my past. In the last few weeks that has chained.

Like many of us I am connected to people all over the world by Facebook and twitter. One evening I saw a man playing the organ and recognised the face immediately it Gwyn from the parish I had left to move here. Shortly before I had seen the son and daughter of a fellow elder from the same parish. The 13 years just faded away. When you add to that working with John Roberts at Radio Cymru again this week it was as if social distancing wasn’t quite as awful as before. So, as the battle of science and COVID-19 rages on let’s all slacken the tension of social distancing by using social media to be just that, SOCIAL, again. We will win the battle and society will be there again. It will have changed, into a kinder place hopefully because of our shared experiences.