Eastlife Spring 2021
This is our fourth issue during the pandemic. Fourth! I can’t quite believe it. Like many other businesses we have learned to adapt. I am no longer flustered when events are cancelled at the last moment before print, it has become the norm.
This is our fourth issue during the pandemic. Fourth! I can’t quite believe it. Like many other businesses we have learned to adapt. I am no longer flustered when events are cancelled at the last moment before print, it has become the norm.
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LITTLE EAST<br />
Mum’s the<br />
Word:<br />
A Time<br />
for Hope<br />
Written by Dolly Osborne | www.raggydollywrites.wordpress.com<br />
Somehow, we have got to the point where vaccines are no<br />
longer a part of our routine but are something controversial. To<br />
me the word vaccination summons up memories of queuing<br />
up in our vests at primary school or the memory of being a sixth<br />
former getting her BCG vaccine late and yet insisting the school<br />
nurse held my hand even though it meant losing face in front of<br />
the younger kids.<br />
Now vaccinations are a tricky topic; talk of them quickly<br />
becomes emotional and divisive with everyone concerned<br />
insisting that they are doing the right thing for their child<br />
whether they be pro or anti-vax. Indeed, the subject is so<br />
emotionally loaded that I was hesitant to even bring it into my<br />
light-hearted mummy column for fear of alienating readers<br />
but given the state of the country right now, I feel it’s the only<br />
parenting issue I could possibly address.<br />
COVID-19 has turned our world upside down. It has brought so<br />
many losses with it; the devastating loss of life, loss of freedoms,<br />
of celebrations, the loss of close contact and time together as<br />
families, losses that are too vast to even summarise here.<br />
New Year to most of us is a time of hope. It’s a run up to spring<br />
and new life, fresh starts and in <strong>2021</strong> much of the optimism<br />
of the new year seems to be attached to the arrival of the<br />
COVID-19 vaccination rollout. It promises so many of us hope.<br />
Hope that some semblance of normalcy will return. Hope<br />
that we can see friends and family that we have missed all<br />
year. Hope that our lives can take place outside of the virtual<br />
recreation centres that we have had to build and rely on. This<br />
ray of light is the thing helping me get out of bed every day. Yet<br />
every bit of light brings a shadow and I fear that the shadow<br />
attached to this optimism is fear of vaccination.<br />
I’m not an immunisation specialist but I was a nurse for 15 years<br />
and I know that for any vaccination program to be successful<br />
a certain percentage of the population has to participate. Right<br />
now, I’m scared that the chance for my son to get back to<br />
school, to see his grandparents, his aunt, his cousin, that all of<br />
this might be scuppered by fear.<br />
I never thought as an adult I’d long for those days of queueing<br />
in my vest in the primary school corridors, but I do. Back then<br />
we all felt like one community coming together to keep us all<br />
healthy; I really hope we are still.<br />
Find Dolly on Twitter @Osborneosaurus<br />
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