Jack, Sevilla – 16 May 2020

Had my first proper haircut in 3 months today! The barber seemed pretty unphased by my home haircut. He told me that that he’s been having to fix a lot of home haircuts gone wrong recently.

It’s been an interesting week with bars and restaurants reopening. On Monday it was pretty chaotic as it seemed like barely any of the bars were actually following the rules. I think over the week however, the police began clamping down as the bars seem to following the rules much better now. I met up with a few friends last night and we waited an hour and a half for a table only to be told that they couldn’t seat us as there were too many of us (we were 5, max table limit is 4) which was annoying, however it is reassuring to know that they are taking it seriously. In the end we decided to buy a bunch of booze and go back to my friends flat instead.

For the time being it looks like most of Andalucia is due to be moving to phase 2 on the 25th May whereas other areas like Madrid will have to spend a bit longer in phase 0 until their cases drop.

Juliet, Holloway, 16 May 2020

Things going a lot better with Dad since yesterday, I’m glad to report. He’s getting his appetite back and coughing less. He seems much better in himself.

I’ve explained the situation to his cleaner Tracie (“Wonderwoman” as he and his friend Bill call her – she’s a kick-boxer in her spare time). She’s wary of working at the moment as one of her kids has a hole in the heart and the other has asthma, but happy to go into Dad’s house 21 days after he first showed symptoms.

This cheered Dad and me up vastly, as she will be able to help with quite a few things apart from cleaning. I’m going to meet the village support group soon too, so we can see what help they can offer.

Richard is coming to stay with Dad for a while when my time at the holiday cottage is up on 6 June, and I’ll be able to go back home to Cardiff, at least for a spell. Feeling very homesick at the moment.

At last there seems to be a little light at the end of the tunnel.

As Leon and Lily will be here on Monday for the funeral (albeit all too briefly), they sent me a big shopping list of goodies from Robin’s (the butchers).

I donned mask and gloves and got a few plants from the newly-opened garden centre for Leon and Lily to take back to my garden in Cardiff. Can’t say it was a pleasurable experience, more like a regimented visit to some kind of facility.

Garden centres are about the only shops allowed to open now. Quite a few people have sent me this pic.

Juliet, Holloway, 14 May 2020

Two things happened yesterday evening: we failed to complete Dad’s coronavirus test procedure because Dad misplaced the piece of paper with the required barcodes on it (or it never arrived) and I got a second letter from the Welsh authorities extending my recommendation to stay at home until 15 June, and possibly even longer (I’m a highly vulnerable person due to taking immunosuppressants for arthritis).

I’d been relying on Dad’s test result as extra confirmation that it’s safe to enter his house. Despite Mum’s death from the virus, Dad has a somewhat cavalier attitude and dismisses the likelihood of him having covid-19 even though he’s had a persistent cough and symptoms since he was in contact with Mum. I’m convinced he’s had a mild form of covid-19 that he caught from Mum and believe this is the only safe assumption to make.

Needless to say, socially isolated Happy Hour didn’t live up to its name last night as I watched Dad fruitlessly hunting round for the paper with the test bar codes through the conservatory window with increasing dismay and we both got quite upset.

As he would have had to take the test after 9 pm and before 7 am this morning, it’s pointless asking the carers to help either.

This is so frustrating, particularly as we get ready to attend Mum’s funeral and take Dad out into the outside world.

I’m very uneasy about the logistics of the funeral. Richard is coming from Scotland with Michael and Jeni, but they’ll be arriving via an overnight stay at cousin Debbie’s B&B in Yorkshire just in time for the funeral and driving back to Scotland the same night. Leon and Lily are driving up and down from Cardiff the same day too. It’ll be quite a bleak affair without any time to chat afterwards.

One of the bereaved people I chatted to on my dog walk yesterday told me that only two people attended his father-in-law’s funeral as he didn’t want to make anyone else enter the “toxic atmosphere” of the crematorium.

I know things will change, but yesterday I really felt stuck between a rock and a hard place. People keep telling me I’m doing a wonderful job, but I can’t really give Dad the help he needs. The truth is that nobody can do anything useful under these circumstances.

Juliet, Holloway, 13 May 2020

Still a bit chillier than recently, but walked up to Dethick church as usual. On the way, both the people I happened to stop and chat to had recently lost elderly relatives in local care homes. It sounded as though there’d been a horrible inevitability about the end in both cases.

With nobody going in or out of care homes, the disease is free to rampage through the elderly population and the staff have no PPE.

Have started the administrative process of reporting Mum’s death to the authorities. Will need to apply for a Blue Badge and the Attendance Allowance for Dad.

I also booked a courier to collect Dad’s coronavirus test tomorrow, though didn’t have quite enough information to register it. It’s not a straightforward procedure and an elderly person who’s not used to doing things online would find it hard to manage on their own.

The fields are suddenly full of quite sturdy-looking lambs.