Hugs, that home-from-work feeling, making cashiers laugh … the littlest things are newly poignant as this anniversary looms

As we approach one year together I’ve been reflecting on life with the worst companion ever, Covid-19. Ideally we would never have met, but this pandemic has now been with us for longer than it takes for a whole new human being to form and be born and get lots of bulky and expensive gifts! A silly analogy considering the pandemic is the opposite of cute new life, causing as it does so much death, illness and all manner of destruction.

I must say, I’m very tired of it. I have come up with some sensible ways to stave off the pandemic-induced loneliness most of us have. What I do is overwork to fill the time, respond aloud to Melvyn Bragg’s podcast to fill the space, and wear a heat pack on my lower back to mimic the reassuring hand of a sturdy man. I also think about fun times I’ve had in the past, and how they’ll maybe happen again at some point. However, as this anniversary looms, looking back is making me melancholy. It’s not an unbearable feeling, rather it’s that sweet type of sadness that’s tinged with some new understanding. Let me explain in the most greetings-card terms possible, that it’s the littlest things.

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