12 Small Pieces
Connect / Communicate
12 hours on a clock face, 12 months in a year, time is fragmented, cut into slivers we live through from one moment to the next.
In the time of covid-19 isolation, time runs slowly. Kept indoors, removed from our neighbours and friends, we can only mix virtually, with laptops and phones, using WhatsApp, Facetime, Messenger, Zoom and other platforms.
This project shows the connections we still have, it shows the links we foster between towns, countries, and continents. 12 small pieces is a record of these connections, made between people, communities, and nations coming to terms with what it means to live with covid-19.
Below is 1 of 6 submissions to the 12 Small Pieces project. The only submission to be published. The remaing 5 submissions that weren’t published can be seen here: Pandemic Perspectives.
Lucia House, Cornwall, April 2020.
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Lucia is my eldest daughter. We spoke online during a break from her feeding her newborn baby Hudson, my grandson, who I am yet to meet in person.
I went into hospital to have my son on the 15th March, the government had not yet announced the lockdown but we were all very aware that the virus was spreading and the public had been ‘advised’ to stay away from busy places and big crowds and to wash their hands for 20 seconds. Going into hospital made me realise it was a lot worse than it seemed, people were not allowed in or out. My partner was allowed to stay in with me, but could only leave the ward if it was essential and there were strictly no visitors. I was so exhausted I didn’t spend a lot of time on my phone so wasn’t entirely aware of what was happening outside of the hospital walls. The Doctors advised us to not have any visitors once we were home.
We came home after 8 days and within the next few days, the lockdown was publicly declared. I became overridden with anxiety, although home was the safest place for my family I wished to be back in the hospital, it gave me a sense of safety, knowing that if anything happened to us we were surrounded by medical professionals. For the first week, the anxiety consumed me, I would not leave the house to take a walk, nor would I let my partner go to the shop despite the fact that we had no food.
It has taken me a few weeks but I have now come to terms with our new life in isolation, I have started to see the positives that it has given us, my partner gets this extra time off of work to build a stronger bond with his son. It still saddens me that our baby is yet to meet his family, he is changing so much every day. Making sure that we stay connected with everyone on social media is all that we can do for now, with the hope that things will start to get better soon.
Visit 12 Small Pieces on Instagram.
Lucia is my eldest daughter. We spoke online during a break from her feeding her newborn baby Hudson, my grandson, who I am yet to meet in person.
I went into hospital to have my son on the 15th March, the government had not yet announced the lockdown but we were all very aware that the virus was spreading and the public had been ‘advised’ to stay away from busy places and big crowds and to wash their hands for 20 seconds. Going into hospital made me realise it was a lot worse than it seemed, people were not allowed in or out. My partner was allowed to stay in with me, but could only leave the ward if it was essential and there were strictly no visitors. I was so exhausted I didn’t spend a lot of time on my phone so wasn’t entirely aware of what was happening outside of the hospital walls. The Doctors advised us to not have any visitors once we were home.
We came home after 8 days and within the next few days, the lockdown was publicly declared. I became overridden with anxiety, although home was the safest place for my family I wished to be back in the hospital, it gave me a sense of safety, knowing that if anything happened to us we were surrounded by medical professionals. For the first week, the anxiety consumed me, I would not leave the house to take a walk, nor would I let my partner go to the shop despite the fact that we had no food.
It has taken me a few weeks but I have now come to terms with our new life in isolation, I have started to see the positives that it has given us, my partner gets this extra time off of work to build a stronger bond with his son. It still saddens me that our baby is yet to meet his family, he is changing so much every day. Making sure that we stay connected with everyone on social media is all that we can do for now, with the hope that things will start to get better soon.
Visit 12 Small Pieces on Instagram.