Losing a grandparent to coronavirus
James, 12, from Glenariffe in County Antrim, told his story to 大象传媒 Young Reporter as part of the 'Isolation Stories' initiative.
Around the middle of March when I was still in school, I heard that the schools could be closing. I got excited because I thought we wouldn't have very much work to do and that it would be good to be off.
The next day when I went into school the teachers gave us our google classroom codes and showed us how to use it. I realised that we might have to do more work than I thought at first. I got home from school as usual. Later that evening the lockdown was announced.
At the start of I thought it was great because we had essentially got our summer holidays early. A few days in I realised how wrong I was to think like that!
A few weeks after we got off school, my family received very bad news. My granda, who was also called James, had Covid 19. He was taken to hospital, and it was very hard to not be able to visit him, meaning we never saw him. When granny was sick in hospital we were able to visit her there before she died three years ago. But we had to wait for a phone call to find out how granda was doing.
A week after he was taken into hospital he died. My family and I were all very sad, and it was made worse as we weren't allowed to have a wake or Mass for him. We had a funeral but only eight people were allowed to go. I had to stand with my brothers outside the wall of the cemetery when my granda was being buried. It all felt a bit weird and unusual.
This has been a tough time for our family, especially since it reminds me of the very sad time eight years ago, when my eldest brother Ciaran passed away.
I have many happy memories of spending time with my granda. I enjoyed gardening with my him, and I used to help him water the tomato plants in his greenhouse.
He would collect me from school every day. Sometimes he took me to the playpark to play on the slides and swings. Other times he brought me to the shop and he bought me sweets. Granda always used to give me polo mints.
Being off because of the lockdown is not like being on our summer holidays. We have to do school work and make sure it's handed in on the correct day.
My advice to other children my age who are in lockdown is you need to try and keep busy, which isn't always easy. You could go for walks, see your friends outside, play games like Connect Four with your family, read a good book, tidy your room and then play the Xbox!
We have now had ten weeks of lockdown and I hope that it will soon end because it is boring being at home all the time. I also really miss getting to go to hurling training and to play in matches in different places. I just want life to go back to normal.
