Today the nation is marking one year since the start of lockdown and remembering the 126,000 Covid victims. We are in a better place just now. I think 17 people died of it in the UK yesterday. But it has been an appalling roller coaster. It has not been Britain's finest hour although the vaccines do now offer real hope. Make sure you get yours! About the linked photo, my father 1916-2004 and mother 1923-2005 in their heyday. Three cars before their demise. Working backwards they had a Polo, a Golf, this BMW in 1971 and in the years before that back through to 1959 when I was born, two Rover P4s. The major impacting moment of their lives was World War Two. Now as it happens 16 and 17 years ago today and tomorrow we buried them. March is really tinged for me and Fiona's mum was a March death and burial too in 2018. I think the death rate in this Pandemic against one year of the war is broadly comparable. My mother was big on stories about parties at USAF airbases. They did not meet until after the war. In a sense they both had "good wars". But the chaos of the war certainly left scars which would impact their lives and those of their children for many decades. At least in the war, the front line forces were found leave. You could not be on duty all the time. Travel around Britain remained just about practical. I believe in this crisis for NHS staff a very difficult challenge has been getting away from the extra-ordinary PTSD level scenes they have had to deal with. We have simply not had enough troops! I am so glad neither my father or mother saw this pandemic. They would not have been impressed. I can confirm that photo was taken in 1984 at Lymington by their friend John Brice.
