During the original coronavirus lockdown, from 24th March 2020, Alice Searle, a vulnerable elderly Salford citizen, explored her fears and hopes during three months of total isolation. First written as a weekly column for the Salford Star website, a new free print version in the form of a 56-page booklet has been published for the fifth anniversary of lockdown…
‘I am managing; please don’t worry’…We all know how untrue those brave words were…
The online community-centred Salford Star provided daily updates throughout the coronavirus emergency, reporting on numerical cases and deaths, safety information, Government and local authority action, or inaction, and community initiatives to lighten the burden of lockdown.
The Star invited one of its directors, long-time contributor and vulnerable elderly citizen, Alice Searle, to write a weekly column on her experiences of being locked away behind closed doors. Her subsequent gentle, poignant writings told of her fears, anxiety, isolation, joys and hope throughout the first three months of the initial crisis.
Alice’s observations will resonate with many of those who lived through the pandemic. From the wild quiet outside her home just off Bury New Road, in Moor Lane, Kersal, to discovering a mental DIY ethic merged with modern tech. There was the frustration of not being hugged, and anger at the hypocrisy and lack of leadership from our ‘leaders’. But there was also extreme gratitude to front line workers, and a warm positivity surrounding the kindness of others in the community.
Says Salford City Councillor, John Warmisham: “This is a piece of Salford’s social history and gives a real insight into Alice’s thoughts whilst in lockdown. A fascinating read worth hunting down.”
Copies of the booklet will be in all Salford Libraries, in the Working Class Movement Library and to pick up free in community spaces.
There is also a shortened online version on Issuu – click here *
In March 2025 it is five years since the first lockdown and in fifty, maybe five hundred years, people will look back at the year the world stopped…These fabulous writings by Alice are a living, real-time, part of that history that we believe should be shared…
‘I closed my front door and learnt to live alone…’
Postscript:
Unfortunately, and sadly, Alice passed away on 2nd March 2025 but she did get to see the booklet and loved it…
“This booklet is a fitting tribute to Alice, an incredible, amazing woman who never shied away from doing what was right for the community” says former Salford Star editor and Bury New Road project co-ordinator, Stephen Kingston
For a review of Alice’s amazing life and times – click here
*To read the original postings throughout the pandemic, and lots more, see the archive at www.salfordstar.com
