Covid-19 Life

By George Knowlson

The impact Covid-19 has had on the world was something that no one in our lifetime will forget. While living through this, I have documented my experience in this area to help this era and the next to look back and see if my experience is something the human race can benefit from. I want to share my own life with the reader, detailing what I had done daily – to show the positive and negative impacts the Covid-19 crisis had on me. This was something everyone had to go through together – united. Everyone has a different story to tell and this one is mine. If you move forward and read my story, there will be a great deal of heartbreak in my journey. Perhaps you can relate? But one thing is for sure, Covid-19 has taken a great deal of time and that reminds us to enjoy the time we have left.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Apr 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398489479

George Knowlson

G.T.K.B is a young man who felt like an outcast his entire life and wanted to keep his gifts a secret. But that from his position has been a good thing. G.T.K.B from not blindly following inner circle when he was younger, he has been able to see people for who they really are and says it, as it is. That is the cost for being a misunderstood character in a broken world.

Book preview

About the Author

G.T.K.B is a young man who felt like an outcast his entire life and wanted to keep his gifts a secret. But that from his position has been a good thing. G.T.K.B from not blindly following inner circle when he was younger, he has been able to see people for who they really are and says it, as it is. That is the cost for being a misunderstood character in a broken world.

Dedication

My father—Martin Knowlson

Grandmother—Jeannette Knowlson

Brother—Harry Knowlson

The NHS, mainly the entire Southmead workforce.

The Knowle West Media Centre Community

Captain Tom hard work to support the NHS also inspired me.

None of the people at either wish to have their names published. But they know who they are.

Copyright Information ©

George Knowlson 2023

The right of George Knowlson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All of the events in this memoir are true to the best of the author’s memory. The views expressed in this memoir are solely those of the author.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398489462 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398489479 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

The NHS, mainly the entire Southmead workforce.

The Knowle West Media Centre Community

Captain Tom’s hard work to support the NHS also inspired me.

All of the people that don’t wish to have their names published. But they know who they are.

Introduction

Hello, reader. My name is George Thomas Knowlson-Baker.

I am a porter at Southmead Hospital in the City of Bristol.

In this book, we are looking back at the world. Reviewing how the COVID-19 virus has had an impact. What my own experiences are and what I have done to get out of life during everything.

Hopefully, you can relate to the subject and find something to pass on yourself to someone else, after watching all the loss of life during this era of disease.

We all have a story to tell and this one is mine.

So get ready to enter into our tale of life and wonder.

The COVID-19 life book is about my own experience and impact on those around me during this pandemic.

Chapter 1

Staying at Home

The story I am about to share will look back how the last few years have impacted my life. I want to move forward, and maybe you could too. Working in the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic has had so many different types of impacts on my life, both my home and work lives are infecting each other. But my job is the reason I have survived it. Good thing, because I hate staying home.

I know for a great number of people around the world, staying at home has saved them. But it would have killed me, not being able to going into work. In many ways, my job really has saved my life.

When COVID-19 first hit, the nation had fallen into chaos. A great number of people were scared about how to cope with COVID-19 out there; possibly killing anyone who comes into contact, and feeling trapped from having to staying home to prevent it from spreading.

I was feeling this way myself too for a second, until I stopped and thought to myself about what I could do to cope, and focused on my job. I still needed to go into work, because I am an employee of the NHS. I would have to think different from everyone else and would grow, to see this as a sign of how to get through.

The thought that I had was I need to help the UK carry on, and I found it to be positive philosophy. I wanted to help me move forward and to stay home as much as possible, as to avoid catching anything.

One example is when panic shoppers were buying food non-stop, without thinking things through and I remember how my dear old grandmother, Janette Knowlson, was one of them.

She knew she couldn’t get out there and buy it herself. Because of how the law needed to insure elderly members of the community weren’t put at risk. But supermarkets had allowed NHS employees to keep shopping at a different time, from the rest of the public, to prevent the virus. That’s panic buyers for ya; they never know when to stop.

She would want me to go out there and get everything I could get my hands on. If I could, she would be thinking of asking me to buy a new second house for her, if I saw one on the open market.

I was losing my mind going on with this crap. I could not take it anymore. She would act out badly like this because she felt trapped indoors. Spending the entire time lost, and she would keep thinking and worrying, behaving this poorly every moment.

Nan felt this way because she had a great deal of trouble at the end of 2019. She was found by my brother on the floor almost bleeding to death from the back of her head, sitting there naked.

When she was able to come home, she needed a lot of time to try to understand what was real and what was not (In her mind, she was losing control of reality itself and believed we were all turning on her). This is because she was left a broken woman, and kept on shouting at everything and everyone.

Even knowing the whole country was forced to go into lockdown. She found that hard to deal with and about how things were changing, because of this crisis.

I just couldn’t take it her being unable to go out because she was an outside doors type of person, and was being forced to stay in all the time. She started to just want to die. I put up with everything and found no way to move forward.

But I waited for months, trying to help her find a way to move on during this pandemic, which felt hopeless and pointless.

But using my experience around caring for elderly people in work, I know how to give them time to accept what is happening. Now I am working around patients like her all the time I could understand, how she must have felt, trapped and in shock.

I knew how to relax and calm her down by treating her like someone who had been in shock and panicking over being unable to understand where they are or where they are going.

So using these skills, I was able to help her find some peace and closure. I gave her all the time in the world to learn how to adjust, by being patient and respecting her wishes, but it wasn’t enough.

We spent about three or four times a day just sitting at the table playing cards. I always let her win just to make her happy. It took me weeks but she did learn to take the first step forward, but it was like one step forward and two steps back sort of thing.

If it wasn’t for my job to keep me calm anytime she refused, I would have killed myself. Focusing on keeping her anger in check because her feelings were always blowing up, and she couldn’t stay still too long. Mostly it was failing.

But thanks to my experience seeing how patients cope in this matter from working with the NHS, I use the same support system to show her how to cope with this heartbreak. But I’m sorry to say that this didn’t end up well.

Being forced to sit inside the same house every day as I would see every day in work, people needed a change of pace.

I would watch her just watching the world go by on TV for hours, it was heart breaking. While I was working long hours, she felt closed off from the world, while my job meant I was still able to get out into it.

I knew how much this troubled her. Since she knew I was able to wake up every morning and go to work, trying to enjoy life as much and as best as I could with it being the way it is now while she couldn’t do anything.

No wonder she turned into the wicked witch of the west. But a bit of fresh air could do the world of good. Something she kept missing in life.

But then sometime in the middle of the summer, while I was working up at Southmead Hospital, I started making use of their gardens during my break times.

I was able to find something positive to bring home with me to Nan. To give me an area where I didn’t need to wear a mask, get a change of scenery and feeling the sun on my face during my breaks. I started to see how I could use this environment to help her.

I came up with the idea to set up the table and chairs in our outside garden during the summer season. So she would have a place to go out and relax. We could keep playing card games together, have a cup of tea and read the newspapers.

There are little things which make life worth living. Even my father, Martin, and my uncle both agreed that this idea, would setup a good place for her. A safe zone if you will.

The two of them would also be able to sit down with her out there. While keeping a good distance between all of them too by staying two feet apart from each other as to not risk anything, being passed on and since it were outside. There was no danger and lots of extra space for them to use.

It was a real challenge at first, because Nan had been thinking of the virus. She felt it was going to attack other people by travelling through the air. She needed to be able to trust being in the outside world again after her accident.

She felt lost and scared, she still does now and maybe will forever. I’m worried.

But after a couple of weeks, things were still getting out of hand, but using my experience from working with escorting patients from up at the NHS came in handy once again. I would let her take her own time and wait to see if she felt safe here again. I knew how to wait for her to take her moments and I was successful.

Then it inspired me to do more. You see at the time, I was also working in my own time on another project, working with the Knowle West Media Centre and with other members of the community to better reach out to other people through this crisis, and offer them something to look forward to a fresh start.

To help make it better by using architect, this could unite the community back together. But because I had my nan to think of about at home all the time that needing my help, I started to think more outside of the box. I became creative and found inspiration while working up at Southmead for supporting elderly members of the country as well.

When coming up with new ideas and designs to work on, I had to focus on bettering lifestyles for people of all age groups. I just wanted to make her life easier and started using this honest hard work, in my designing for their program as well.

The media centre group agreed with this. Knew it was a good point of view to consider, insuring everyone would feel welcomed.

Before I came up with the idea, we never did stop and think about how this project could benefit people, of all age groups in the community. We were creating a place for everyone as an outside lunch area.

This idea would develop into a place where people of different ages could get together in the summer. I set it up so they could keep good distances from each other to avoid any viruses from carrying on.

I got to meet a lot of good people, while in lockdown working very hard of these designs. And I am grateful to them…for every moment.

This project was one of the things that helped to keep my mind at peace throughout this troubling time, because I was always working.

This is all because I found something to focus my time and energy on alongside my job. This is where I came up with the idea, because working for the NHS in lockdown still allowed me to get out and about, and see things in a different way.

Like I said, working helped to inspire me and use up my energy in a positive way. So in other words, everything in my life went around full circle.

I spent weeks working on all sorts of designs, about how I would like it to come out as.

At first I kick and pasted together some papers blocks and created my living room.

Next, I put together to create somewhere outside. To be a place for people of all ages, to get together to socialise during COVID-19.

Then I came up with the idea for an outdoor house for my nan. Somewhere for her to reconnect with the outside more.

I had a load of fun putting my time into this. But sadly, the same could not be said for the rest of my family. That is why going to work in the NHS meant so much to me.

Since I had a place away from the problems I was having at home and being here is a good reminder. Why it is worth fighting for and vice versa.

I do remember talking about what we could do to get ready for the first lockdown, and not everyone became worried when the first wave of COVID-19 hit. Some were happy, mainly young families, who saw not being able to go to work or school and being allowed to stay at home together as a blessing.

Like my cousins told me, they enjoyed being able to stay at home being able to play with their children. I remember my younger brother, Harry, also being one of them too. Harry collected a large number of box sets, comic books and video games to play and to help pass the time.

But I have noticed a change in his behaviour. When I was working at Southmead and he was on his own having no one to talk to.

He had needed to use his time to talk to me about everything that had been going in and out of his head across the day, to protect his mental health.

Such as what he learned from his God of War games or his collection like G.I. Joe, DC vs Marvel comics and Manga books. This is because without me at home, he was losing track of time and needed to talk to someone, to stop himself from going crazy because he was feeling alone. Not getting to develop his social skills or knowledge. Mostly because he is the clown within the family.

Because of the lack of communication in his lifestyle, he was developing a circle of violence in his