"Chris," I called, "I just caught Mary spying on me."
"It's not the first time. See those holes?" he pointed to where there had been gaps left by knots in the wood, lower down the fence, "I plugged them last week."
He immediately got to work finding something we could cover the gap with.
Mary is our 87 year old neighbour, we share a drive with her. According to her daughter in law she has Parkinson's and a touch of dementia. Chris says we could have worse neighbours, noisy kids or yobbos, so he puts up with her.
She has a tendency to be nosy and loves nothing more than gossiping about people to the neighbours. When I recently cut Chris's hair in the garden she'd obviously seen me doing it and asked him if I was a hairdresser. Chris lied and told her I was and now the neighbourhood has been informed that I have my own salon.
Shortly after catching her peeking Mary called over the fence. "Chris, Chris! Lockdown ends on Monday!"
She seems to have been oblivious to the rules of the lockdown since the beginning, trotting out to the shops two or three times a day with a scarf wrapped around her face, her crimson bobble hat pulled down tight over her head and her wrap-around mirrored sunglasses finishing the look. She's been sent home at least three times from the hospital for turning up unannounced and her family appear to have absolved themselves of all responsibility.
Mary and I don't see eye to eye and I won't take any of her shit but I'm conscious of her age and condition and despite what people think, I am compassionate given her situation. I was the one that turned the hob off and alerted her when I smelled gas billowing out of her back door, and when she fell in the bath and was covered in bruises I offered our services if she needed anything from the shops. We're not mates, and she torments me, but I'm not a monster.
Mary is clearly aware of the lockdown but I think it's safe to say she doesn't completely grasp it. What little she reveals to us is, I suspect, taken from headlines in The Sun. Our warnings to her have been ignored or forgotten and her family are nowhere to be seen. It must be lonely for her in the house on her own but I suppose this is nothing new for her as she's lived alone for years.
I think her sons should be doing more, but maybe they're on the phone to her every day and I shouldn't speculate. It's hypocritical of me to judge them anyway, after all I've not seen my dad since Christmas day and I only speak to him once or twice a fortnight. He too lives alone, though he is less mobile than Mary, and less inclined to tell the neighbours that I'm a hairdresser.
Part of the reason I haven't seen my dad is because he doesn't live down the road and we don't have a car. I planned to go over for his 70th in March but travel restrictions kiboshed that. His life has shrunk noticeably in recent years but the lockdown has affected him in different ways. He's been unable to get Tesco deliveries because of increased demand so now my cousin goes to see him every day and takes him a hot meal. She's been a superstar and arguably the lockdown has worked out better for him because of her efforts.
Chris's parents are royally fucked off with staying at home. They're in their eighties, and very mobile, so not at all happy with being told to stay at home. They did as was advised and expected for a long time but recently they've decided to loosen the self imposed reins a little.
They appear to have the same weird fascination with supermarkets that Chris has, so they've been doing the rounds. Sainsbury's, Aldi, Waitrose, M&S Food and Tesco have all been visited in the last week. God knows why they need to go to the supermarket so often. Maureen recently revealed to me that they currently have 63 toilet rolls at home, tins of beans and salmon coming out of their ears, fridges and freezers filled to bursting with ready meals, bleach like it's going out of fashion and more cereal than can be made from the wheat fields of East Anglia. On top of that they have a milkman delivering fresh dairy a couple of times a week.
This isn't unusual lockdown hoarding, it's always been like this. They had no concerns when the supermarkets were being stripped bare a few weeks ago, they were sitting on a pile of groceries that could've filled Marks and Spencer twice over. None of it ever wasted and all of it accumulated on a rolling basis over a number of months.
I can appreciate how frustrating it must be for them having to stay at home. I have the benefit of continued work and the Government advises that I can leave the house every day - and I'm bored shitless. They are being told to 'shield' themselves by not going anywhere till June.
Maureen especially needs more human contact than WhatsApp and the telly can offer because she's looking after Brian who suffers from Alzheimer's. He still retains much of his character, he's charming and funny, but the difference over recent years is noticeable. He's always checking his pockets for his car keys, he's very forgetful and often repeats the same comment or question over and over, a favourite being 'How's life in general?' He has a habit of drifting off.
He wouldn't be able to look after himself any more and so Maureen has taken on many of the things Brian would once have done. For the time being at least he can still drive short distances with Maureen as a passenger but I think this is likely to come to an end sooner rather than later. I've not spoken to them about what happens then; they live on a small housing estate with not much within walking distance and Maureen doesn't drive.
The obvious response would be to give or sell the car to Chris and we can spend more time helping them out but I don't think it's as easy as that. The car is a symbol of a much bigger thing and giving it up, as they will inevitably have to do, will mean giving up their independence. The longer they can keep using the car, even for the little things, the longer they remain self reliant.
I've not had a car for four years and you find work-arounds but I live somewhere well serviced by public transport, with lots of amenities within walking distance, and I'm not 84 years old.
So back to the lockdown - is it worse for the elderly? In many cases yes, just look at what's happened in nursing homes and care homes around the world. I have a friend whose mum is in a home where four people have died from Covid 19 and who is battling it herself right now. I can't begin to imagine what that's like either for mother or daughter.
Under normal circumstances my dad would probably be better in a home but I'm glad he isn't right now. He has his emergency call button if he falls, my cousin sees him every day and he has some social care from the NHS. Right now I'm happy with that and thankful he isn't in a more vulnerable position.
The lockdown is obviously different for everyone. It would be wrong to assume those over a certain age are all in the same boat, yet the Government guidelines have done that to some extent. That being said I think it was inevitable given the timescales and level of knowledge about the coronavirus they had at the time the guidance was issued.
Many people are unhappy about the way the Government have dealt with the situation, and that's understandable. I wonder though how anyone would have done it and if a different Government would have managed it better. One thing's for certain, we'll never know that.
This Government and its response will be judged in the fullness of time, probably in comparison to other countries, and then eventually, many decades from now, it won't matter to anyone who was in charge, it will have become a piece of history about our country, to be learnt from or otherwise.
Right now though, before this pandemic becomes historical fact, and before it goes through the rigmarole of politics, it's about the people that are living it and that's why, when I caught Mary spying on me, I let it slide.
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