mum during covid pandemic

            I was home from work and the world had changed! Returning from working away from home on the Shetland isles three weeks on three offs, when I went away to work the world was seeing news coming from china a city called Wuhan (that most people had never heard of before), was going into isolation for some new virus! Not really a new thing I "felt" at that time of year for china, we had seen swine flu and bird flu come and go previously, flying up to work things hadn’t changed much at the airport, during the first week at work this escalated slightly with some cases of this virus infecting two cruise ships, then starting to show in other cities throughout the world during my second week away,  by the third week away Shetland had become the most infected part of the UK! This was due to a couple returning from Italy bringing the virus with them, then going out to a local gig and swimming gala, they weren’t alone Europe had taken over from china as the epicentre of this new pandemic, the press were talking about it twenty four hours a day seven days a week by then, no other news mattered the world went mad! I was flying home from the UK`s most infected area while bars restaurants cinemas and theatres were all shut! I was wondering what’s the point of going home? I’ve nobody to go home to and nothing to do nowhere to go, my mate bob and his family got home from their ski trip in the alps just in time. because all the holiday resorts were shutting down as they left, I didnt know it then but that would be the end of any hopes of me getting away skiing even here in scotland

          

the wee tree still there

  By this time I was seriously concerned that there was a high probability it was very likely I had the virus and was perhaps a carrier, with an eighty three year old mum it was best I didn’t visit her, it’s been a custom of mine on the run up to getting home from work, that I would buy myself a few parcels to come home to, I always get these delivered to mums house as she or her neighbour Neil would always be home, this month was no different I had ordered some stuff to be delivered not knowing how quickly this whole thing would grab on to society, there was a box of beer also a box of different gums two jackets and some wildflowers all delivered to mums house to collect! Normally a fun time for us both enjoying the visit and catch up with boxes to open. BUT what to do now? I was 70-80% certain I was potentially a carrier mum’s lungs are already not that great and with her family history!! I phoned her and said I would wait a few days before going up, which I done my symptoms were much the same when I opted to go collect the parcels, I chose to wear a buff over my face and wear nitrile gloves take hand sanitiser with me and a spray disinfectant which I double sprayed everything with, also taking with me four walkie talkies I normally use for skiing,  I could then talk to mum from the garden, we done this and it was fun I treble cleaned everything I touched, keeping my distance way beyond the allocated two meters, as usual me and mum had a good fun relaxed chat, she was obviously delighted to see me, even if it was someone strolling around the garden talking to her on a walkie talkie. Or shouting through her patio door, we are both hard of hearing so half our village probably heard our conversation, she is a social butterfly who’s lack of social interaction must be killing her (worrying though for me i was hoping that wouldn’t be literally!)

mum keeping a social distance

            On the first day home from work I had kept up my fitness regime even though all the planned events were all cancelled, I just couldn’t get out of the habit of running didn’t want to either at that time, that day while out doing what I call the double graveyard run whereby I always run past gran and papas grave, spotting that during my absence to work the council had cut down the wee pine tree next to the headstone! it disorientated me to begin with? but soon realising it made the stone stand out more and things seemed brighter, mentioning this by way of conversation to mum about it on the phone that night, she said sadly- och no really son (heartache in her voice) I planted that tree are you sure? Aye maw its away! I told her I was sorry to break this news and that I was also sorry she couldn’t get down to see it just now, I said I  would give things a clean-up and send a photo, which I done I bought a rose bush because I had a memory of papa putting horse shit on his front garden roses down hawthorn street, I also planted flowers called aubrieta, putting all these in a backpack with a flask of warm water some scouring pads and bleach, it was an easy run from home (except I had forgot my camera for the before and after pic bag dumped behind the stone I ran back for the camera)to give the headstone a clean-up and plant the plants while placing some daffies in the flower holder, cheered it up a bit in the hope it would cheer mum up a bit which it did,

before

After

With this whole corona virus stuff going on and the headstone stuff, it made me reflect upon things one of which being mums’ family’s lung history! I was worried about her catching it, also gran and papas grave is also Mums older sister Bettys grave, she died of TB she got that aged around 21 and died of it aged 25,  Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection spread through inhaling tiny droplets from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person. (just like corona) TB is a potentially serious condition, but it can be cured easily nowadays if it's treated with antibiotics. There are occasional outbreaks of Bovine TB, with a recent case confirmed in a herd of cattle in Skye. A Scottish government spokesman said: "The source of the infection is under investigation. “Although Scotland has officially been "TB free" since 2009, there are still cases. The TB free designation requires less than a tenth of 1% of herds to have had the condition over the past six years. The cattle involved in Skye had been destroyed. Scotland is officially Bovine TB free, but that does not mean we are free of Bovine TB. cases are usually, but not always, caused by infected animals being imported into Scotland, the sector is particularly concerned about protecting its valuable TB-free status since the disease was detected in a dead badger in Cumbria. But the risk of it crossing the border through wildlife is still much less than through cattle movements. This does not stop farmers from shooting badgers they get fifty pounds for every badger shot from the govt

            My aunt Bettys death was not the only lung infection tragedy to hit my mums family, Mum also had a sister Helen and brother Kenneth, for some reason mum calls me Kenneth  in the modern anglicised  way, but speaks of her brother and uncle as kenet? the pronunciation is all different to make it sound like it should be spelt different from mine, but of course Gaelic had an entirely different alphabet system and vocabulary to what our modern Latinised English is so its extremely difficult to place those letters of the Latin alphabet to make these Gaelic sounds (extreme example welsh Gaelic town names spelling)

            These siblings of mums didn’t live long (They died before mum was born) when my gran and papa were living in port Glasgow during the great depression (aug1929-march 1933) papa had struggled to find work, even though he had learned to be a skilled metalworker and blacksmith while out in the frontlines during WW1, he still went seven years without work during the great depression between the wars, there was just not any work,. The living conditions were not good damp unheated tenement buildings made for a breeding ground of disease along with poor nutrition and bad health, an outbreak of whooping cough in an area like this was fatal to the young

            My aunt Kate (who’s grave is less than a stones throw from her parents) was fifteen years older than her youngest sister my mum, when Kate was twelve years old and living in port Glasgow Kate left her seven year old sister betty, but took her three year old brother Kenneth out to play in the street, unbeknown to Kate one of the other children in the street had whooping cough, this was then devastatingly passed on that day to Kenneth, he quickly showed the horrendous signs of the illness with the tell-tale severe hacking cough followed by a high-pitched intake of breath that sounds like "whoop." during prolonged coughing bouts, a doctor had to be called! Not an easy undertaking for people who couldn’t find paid work and struggled day to day, there was no NHS in those days so this was a desperate act, the doctor arrived and diagnosed Kenneth straight away with whooping cough, he then said there was nothing could be done he would be dead within the week,  He then pointed at eight month old baby Helen and said that one will get it also and die! he was correct,

gran and papa were now left with two babies to bury and two children to feed with no money! a pauper`s grave was most likely obtained and papa made a headstone from an old butchers slab he had procured, carving the names himself into the stone, (mum said aunt Kate lived for years with a horrible guilt about taking her brother out to play) mum is also uncertain /not keen? On my assumption it must be a pauper’s grave as the other graves around were normal graves and marked with headstones? Further investigation is required on this, perhaps only a visit to the greenock graveyard will clear this up,(greenock was chosen not port glasgow as greenock was there pre marital hometown) when asking mum about this grave she said that the graveyard had fell into disrepair with kids vandalising the place the last time she was there! this would not have been the future auld Arthur probably dreamed of all those years as a teenager at the front-line during WW1, an unemployed family man living on the breeadline and burying his infants

          

Thankfully nowadays we prevent whooping cough with the pertussis vaccine, which doctors often give in combination with vaccines against two other serious diseases — diphtheria and tetanus. Doctors recommend beginning vaccination during infancy, before these routine vaccinations were introduced in 1957, whooping cough outbreaks in the UK were on a huge scale. It is reported that pertussis affected about 1,900 infants per year ... It is hoped that the newer acellular vaccine will produce fewer side effects e.g., ... of the infant, since poor nutrition can contribute significantly to complications, The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that 60 million cases of Pertussis occur worldwide each year. Approximately 500,000 to 1,000,000 individuals develop life-threatening complications because of Pertussis.

            The family were then only the two girls until mum arrived in 1937, I would bet my gran was worried for her new baby’s lungs keeping her well away from anybody who coughed or sneezed! thankfully mum was fine, papa found work at Grangemouth`s dockyard, the family left port Glasgow when mum was eight-month-old to much better housing, the future at last looking bright,

we shall skip WW2 which obviously was to have a huge impact on this family for the purpose of this write up, except that aunt Kate was a sergeant in the ATC during the war, mum wished she had married the handsome spitfire pilot she dated during the war, but she never aunt Kate married Laurence Nicol who had fortunately survived being torpedoed three times during the war. Once the war was over they got married within the year, their uncle kenneth never came home he was killed at tobruk i was starting to think kenneth was an unlucky name for this family(fortuneately wrong) 

Aunt kates wedding with mum and betty

   mum was into her teens before tragedy struck the Cameron family lungs again, betty was 21 (around 1947) when she developed what became diagnosed as TB! Even these days more than one million people are killed by tuberculosis every year, perhaps as much as a third of the world's population are infected, according to the World Health Organisation which has declared the epidemic of the disease a global emergency.

Tuberculosis is yet another bacterial infection of the lungs and sometimes other parts of the body, TB is also spread by droplets in the coughs or sneezes of a person with the disease. Tuberculosis was known as 'consumption' in the 19th century and was a major cause of death in Britain at that time. The disease is still common where there is overcrowding, malnourishment and poor health care.

Diagnosis should include an X-ray of the chest to detect damage to the lungs, but this was new in the 1950s a Mass Radiography Centre was created in Glasgow in a drive against the disease. Treatment nowadays involves a prolonged course of medication - but in the past treatment entailed many months away from others in a 'sanatorium' or special hospital. Mum remembers betty in the sanatorium which was in Camelon to begin with only around five mile away, then moved way out in Bannockburn around twelve mile away, this was in the days when people didn’t have cars, a visit to betty meant shouting though a glass door (much like I was doing this day when visiting mum due to corvid 19), I enquired from mum if the place down at redock was not the nearest such sanatorium? but no apparently what is now horse stables down the back of polmont at redock was the fever hospital,

            Finally after much more than a year Betty got out of the sanatorium, she was back at the family home in Dalgrain road Auld toon grangemouth, where the family were now a well-known popular part of the community with papa working in the dockyard and being a deacon in the church, Kate by that time had got married and moved out, she had two sons by then tom and Kenneth, mums family home was in the auld ton dalgrain road with betty and their mum and dad, mum had to sleep on a couch bed when betty got home as she required a room to herself, betty and gran wanted to go to the regal cinema in Falkirk to see the film gone with the wind, this entailed a bus trip, while queuing for the cinema a person wanting to push through the crowd to get the standburn bus on the opposite side of the road elbowed betty in the rib cage, this thoughtless elbow is what the family attribute to the following mornings incident!

Mum remembers vividly (as traumatic memories do stick even after seventy years of life!) She was on her couch bed with her curlers in she was only fourteen, she heard betty knock her stick on the floor which is what she done if she required help or attention, her mum looked first at the door thinking it was someone at the door, her dad was at work, when it was obvious no ‘one was at the door auld Lizzy checked with betty? She was haemorrhaging! mum was swiftly dispatched down the street to use a phone for the doctor, there was only one phone in the town, by the time mum had instructed the neighbour to phone the doctor and then get back to her mum and sister, she was dispatched again to the neighbour who had a phone, tell the doctor not to bother betty is dead! She was then dispatched by bus to her sisters Kates house, who was obviously dumb struck by the news and immediately told mum, watch the boys (my cousins tam and the cool cuz ken tam died of lung cancer the cool cuz is doing well in his 70`s) I need to go over said aunt Kate to my 14year old mum, she was so quick she got on the circular bus that mum had taken over she was that quick, that was the last mum seen of betty ever and her mum and home for two weeks, she wasn’t home again until after the burial was passed, things were different then woman and girls generally didn’t go to burials/funerals,

It must have seemed like a real woe is we time for Arthur and Lizzy yet another of their children struck down with a lung related illness given to them by people in their community, a community they tried hard to be good parts of, Arthur must have been asking god what had he done to deserve all this tragedy of course he would also be counting his blessings, for he still had his eldest and youngest daughters fifteen years apart in age, with all their siblings in the middle now gone! he had also miraculously survived years at the front during the great war, finding betty had died was a tragic moment for mum, her mother was distraught shouting in the street with cries for help, the emotions must have been terrible, with huge feelings of personal loss, I always felt gran was just an old moan and a bit of an hypochondriac – no wonder she always felt she had an illness there had been illnesses killing her family for years, I only recently found out that she had been put on valium the day after bettys death and remained on these anti depressants the rest of her days, as a matter of fact they probably attributed to her death, their house was flooded by the upstairs neighbour when they were in their 80`s, the whole ceiling collapsed in the middle of the night in december 1981, they then got put in sheltered accomodation in dunblane twenty mile away! supposadly while their dowstair flat got the flood damage sorted(they never got back to their home)! this accomodation was all upstairs, gran was seperated from her medication that night with it being so far from home and no way to get more of this medication,  she started halucinating and ended up in hopspital within the month picked up a virus and died early february, with lizzy gone arthur followed within only three months, they had probably became symbiotic and missed their home and each other too much to survive

Aunt kates grave

It can be hard to tell the difference between viruses and bacteria because they can both lead to diseases with similar symptoms such as coughing and fever.
   this corvid19 is not an unprecedented event we have had pandemics all the time through history, the difference is these days with modern comunication and health knowledge, we can act better and faster then hopefully we wont have our grandchildren writing about familly losses! take care everyone learn fom the past keep washing those hands and if your sneezing or coughing please stay away from people, especially the old for this illness the young for other air born illnesses, here is a small example of what can happen when an uneducated ignorant mass of people are hit by a virus/disease! when the black plague/great pestilence/bubonic plague hit florence in 1348, the city had a population of 200 thousand, within four months 100 thousand people died! half the cities population! pandemics are real and they are scary! but as they say we have the technology play safe untill our technology catches up, 
     what if Kate had never taken her wee brother out to play? 
     what if gran had never taken aunt betty to the cinema?
   would betty have then went on to live into her 80`s like mum and kate? some people with TB at that time did!
    would an uninfected kenneth and helen then went on to live into their 80`s, like there siblings or maybe like arthurs sister lizzy live to be 105? (now burried in greenock I wonder if the graves are near)  
  we will never know but what I do know is that I will learn from these mistake, I will be taking every measure possible to keep this virus away from mum
     kenny
ps - The woman who discovered the first human coronavirus was the daughter of a Scottish bus driver, who left school at 16. June Almeida went on to become a pioneer of virus imaging, whose work has come roaring back into focus during the present pandemic.

Covid-19 is a new illness but it is caused by a coronavirus of the type first identified by Dr Almeida in 1964 at her laboratory she was sent samples of the virus particles in specimens, which she described as like influenza viruses but not exactly the same. She had in fact identified what became known as the first human coronavirus.

 The virologist was born June Hart in 1930 and grew up in a tenement near Alexandra Park in the north east of Glasgow. She left school with little formal education but got a job as a laboratory technician in histopathology at Glasgow Royal Infirmary She pioneered a method which better visualised viruses by using antibodies to aggregate them. She finished her career at the Wellcome Institute, where she was named on several patents in the field of imaging viruses.

After retirement she become a yoga teacher but went back into virology in an advisory role in the late 1980s when she helped take novel pictures of the HIV virus. June died in 2007, at the age of 77. Now 13 years after her death she is finally getting recognition she deserves as a pioneer whose work speeded up understanding of the virus that is currently spreading throughout the world.