I’ve never been big on anniversaries…unless it happens to be a joyous occasion such as a wedding anniversary or a birthday.
It seems to me an eternal and bleak thing to endlessly mark the annual date of an event such as the Lockerbie Bombing which happened 32 years ago.
I don’t mark the date of death of my mother or father … both died many years ago and I think of them often and at all different times of year depending on my emotions or what is happening in my life. This way I keep them close to my life and let them influence me.
Yet, between now and Tuesday, March 23rd much will be written and broadcast about how we mark the first anniversary of the first death and the start of Lockdown in the UK from the devastating global Covid-19 pandemic.
For this anniversary I make an exception.
It has been declared a National Day of Reflection. There will be minute of silence at 12 noon and the symbolic shining of candles and torches into the night sky at 8pm while buildings and monuments will be illuminated yellow to commemorate all those who have lost their lives to this virus over the past year.
And yet for most of us who have lost family or friends to Covid the date of March 23 is not the most relevant … the waves of infection that claimed thousands of lives came throughout the year. The desperate times when fear stalked out every thought that Covid-19 was going out of control and about to topple our very ability to function as a country – with an overwhelmed NHS and broken economy… not to mention the threat of anarchy on our streets.
This anniversary, for all those reasons, seems very different than any other.
It is appropriate that it is being regarded as a day of Reflection. A reflection over an entire year of thousands upon thousands of remembrances.
I have been closely involved with The Herald Garden of Remembrance campaign which will create a peaceful place for reflection within Glasgow’s beautiful Pollok Country Park. https://www.heraldscotland.com/campaigns/memorial-garden/
Tuesday will be a day when millions of us will share together that powerful emotional unity of remembrance, grief and perhaps more importantly hope.
For me I will especially remember two very good friends who were battling cancer and who would almost certainly still be alive today had their cancer not made them so vulnerable to Covid-19.
Both had been fighting their cancers before I was diagnosed terminal and both encouraged me to stay positive and fight for every day. That’s who I’m thinking of now, will be thinking of on Tuesday and also the days after that – how many ever there are.
Ally McLaws is a freelance specialist in powerful writing, business marketing and reputation management. See the full range of services on offer and view all previous back issues of this column at: www.mclawsconsultancy.com
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