A lot of people have died in the COVID-19 pandemic, both in the UK and across the world. We have not been able to see our relatives and friends as much as we would like. Even when we see them, we have often not been able to hug or even touch them. All of this might make us feel sad, just as Nina Last felt sad when her friends died at the hospital in the 1918-1919 Influenza pandemic.

Sometimes we can’t work out how we feel and that can influence how we remember things and people.

Kate Millar, an academic at LSE, says there is ‘no one way to remember’.

Glossary of terms in the video:

Collective – coming all together.
Memorialisation – a way of remembering or making memorials.
Society – people living together in a community.

Memorials

On 23 March 2021, the UK held a day of reflection to mark a year since the first lockdown came into force and to remember all the people who had died from COVID-19. At 12pm a minute’s silence was held, much like a minute’s silence is held at 11am on 11 November to remember the people who have died in wars.

Remembering people and events can be difficult as we all feel and express things in different ways. Creating something that we can remember with them can be a good way of working out what we are thinking and feeling.

We have memorials to remember people who died due to war, disaster or from natural causes. They can be statues, sculptures, plaques and gardens. We can design our own memorial to remember someone.

The Remembering / Memorials worksheet is to help you work out what you would like to include into your memorial. There is no right or wrong way to design your own memorial. This is your personal piece.

Hope

The vaccines and other measures are making it safer to go back to see people again, as well as hug older relatives and friends. Although, things won’t go back to normal for a while, we can start to plan what it is we most want to do when restrictions are gradually lifted.

Maybe an infographic from the project Worksheet Looking Forward

People may feel sad or have mixed emotions, just as people did when the First World War ended. The staff at Endell Street Hospital threw a party for the patients after the end of the war but they had another year of treating wounded soldiers and people with influenza, including their own staff.

Glossary

COVID-19 or coronavirus – is a virus. Viruses are really small germs that carry illnesses. It is an air born disease i.e. it is carried through the air and is respiratory, i.e. it infects the nose and throat. (It is also known as SARS-CoV-2 as it is related to other viruses known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.)

Influenza - an infectious disease that is caused by a virus. Symptoms include cough, sore throat, muscle aches and pains, fever, and headache. Influenza is commonly known as the flu.

Pandemic - an outbreak of an infectious disease that spreads across a large region (for example a continent), or even worldwide