I’m also quitting my family to spend more time with my job

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“NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON FEAR. IT SHOULD ALWAYS BE IN FRONT OF YOU, LIKE A THING THAT MIGHT HAVE TO BE KILLED.”

Hunter S. Thompson

Rest assured when I say I’m not the kind of writer to use a feverishly paced, infectious sense of humour to throw tales of pandemic proportions around willy nilly. If you like your toilet paper like you like your weapons of mass destruction, stockpiled, go join your local Hoarders Anonymous support group, you’ll find no such tomfoolery in any of my stories.

We Don’t Talk About Coronavirus Enough; Never say c’rona virus, that’s how I contracted it

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After being married to a complete nutcase who nearly killed me I’ve learnt the hard way that when there’s an outbreak of chaos, it’s far better to wait and see how the land lies before jumping in all guns blazing. And over the last week, as I sat staring out the window of life, I’ve had time to think long and hard about this current twist of global fate and what may lay ahead.

I know what you’re thinking —

“Lee, everyone on Medium knows you’re an absolute idiot! What the hell would you know about Covid-19?”

Rest assured, I’m more than aware that I didn’t get where I am today without being anything less than a complete failure, but let’s not forget that as well as being a deadbeat writer I’m also a frontline nurse in the UK’s most prized possession, the National Health Service (NHS). I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say I now find myself amongst society’s key workers that are facing this shit-storm head-on.

Do you know what? I’d be a fool not to write about my experiences. I plan to use my energetic first-person participatory prose along with my satirical social commentary to document my story and the stories of those I meet. Some may call it gonzo, I call it gung-ho, let’s go.

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We now find ourselves in unprecedented times. I for one have never in my whole life heard the word ‘unprecedented’ used so much. If someone had told me six months ago that I would be using the word ‘unprecedented’ on a daily basis, I would have told them ‘pull the other one its got bells on!’ Actually come to think of it, if someone had told me six months ago that I would be on the frontline of the worst pandemic the world has ever faced in modern times, I’d have said, ‘well lock me down and call me Larry!”

It’s essential we pull together and help one another to remain focused on overcoming this. I consider myself a bit like Harry and Meghan, I’m also quitting my family to spend more time with my job.

More than ever we should be taking every opportunity to have a laugh. According to unconfirmed reports, the latest casualty of the Covid-19 was the creator of predictive text. His funfair is next monkey.

It is only through collective action that we will effectively sustain and support each other through this. We have to do this otherwise society will fall apart into even more chaos, we all know this. In such a space kindness and compassion will matter most.

“Remember people, if you hear a funny coronavirus joke, please laugh into your elbow”

Lee Serpa Azeva-who?

Originally published in Medium publication The Swipe, 24th March 2020.