You have published many articles about the challenges of isolation, most recently your long read (Patterns of pain: what Covid-19 can teach us about how to be human, 7 May). But there is one interesting outcome you may not have considered.
Many of those of us who always live alone are finding we are much more in contact with loved ones than previously. I’ve lived alone since being widowed 16 years ago, and I’ve never had as much contact with my family and even my friends than I’ve had since the lockdown began.
Through WhatsApp I hear daily from a wide range of people, who send jokes, videos and messages. My lovely (and always supportive) daughter phones daily, my son texts regularly and I know more about the lives of my wider family than I ever did previously.
I do miss the wide range of activities with which I’d filled my life, of course, but perhaps because I am already well practised in lone living, I’m finding this period in many ways more connected than life before coronavirus. What would be great is if that level of contact continued once we are back to normal.
Jill Wallis
Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire
