Helen was planning on spending the week at her flat, so on Monday morning Helen kissed John goodbye, telling him she would ring this evening. John was in the office this morning, it was his first day back in old team. He was getting handover from Amanda (his boss) and Sanjay (his colleague)who had remained in OD during his short lived redeployment to the HR helpdesk. They started to make plans on what they would be doing with regards supporting the staff, alongside the chaplaincy service. They also created a rota for the office space. Although to be fair there was not going to be much time spent in the office. When they were onsite at either hospital they would be running drop-ins for staff and not in the office. The office would just be used as a base and a place to hold one to ones. John would be working at the drop in on Tuesday and Thursday this week, so working from home Wednesday and Friday, and Monday afternoon, once he had collected his display screen and keyboard to go with his laptop. John would also be available, over the phone for telephone clinics on the days when he is working from home. They were also working through how staff can access video messaging. The trust has access to MS teams so John had agreed to trial this for staff support 1:1 online. John was sceptical about how this would work. Knowing how difficult he found talking to distressed staff over the phone. It was agreed that Amanda would pull together a meeting with all those involved in staff support to look at how this would work and how all those delivering this support would be getting their supervision.
John went home at lunchtime after collecting all his equipment. Tobey was up in his bedroom. John just popped his head in and Tobey looked up from his desk, and gave him a wave. John asked him if he had, had lunch. He said no, so they had lunch together before going back to work. John gave Debbie a phone call. Debbie works in the OD team and reports to him. She has been working from home for a couple of weeks now, as she is heavily pregnant and goes on maternity leave next month. He just wanted to check in, as he had not managed to speak to her since he had been redeployed. They had a 20 minute conversation, most of it social, just making sure she was ok, they spent about 5 minutes talking through what they had plans for and what the team wanted Debbie to continue and what extra they wanted her to do. John felt social conversations were a vital part of leading teams, especially when the member of staff is working remotely and is feeling vulnerable as Debbie was. He wanted to make sure that she felt safe and cared for. Debbie was a delicate soul at the best of time, so always needed plenty of reassurance without being patronised. This was especially the case now, as she was stuck at home wondering if she was going to keep herself and her unborn child safe. John had talked to dozens of pregnant staff when he was on the help desk, so he knew how confusing and scary it was for them all after spending ages reading the often contradictory and ever changing guidance from different sources, and trying to relay the best possible advice to them and trying to keep them calm.
John spent the rest of the afternoon setting up his work-station in his spare bedroom/home office, and starting to write the SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for the delivery of staff support as well as making contact with his colleagues around the region. Just as he was finishing his best friend Steve messaged him, asking if he was free to talk. Steve is a CEO of a local social enterprise charity. Like John he used to be a nurse and had trained at the same time as John, as did Emma his wife who is a Midwifery Sister. The 4 of them John and Angie, and Steve and Emma were thick as thieves. Emma is still good friends with Angie and has a love hate relationship with John, she thinks he is lovely guy who makes terrible choices. Which up until recently is a fairly accurate assessment. Emma does get on well with Helen and is hopeful that John is starting to sort his life out.
John rang Steve, Steve was clearly stressed. He was frantically trying to keep all those around him calm and trying to co-ordinate appropriate support across the city with the council and other charities. It was chaos, they were waiting for more guidance and direction from the government. On top of that Emma was beside herself with the lack of a sense of urgency in Midwifery, with regards to risks to staff and the Mums with no thought to how they would manage outpatients and community care, and that her Mum and Dad live in Spain, she was worried about their safety and terrified that they would never see them again. Steve had heard that Boris was making an announcement tonight and that it would be a stay at home order. John had not heard anything. He was sort of expecting it but to be fair had put that to the back of his mind, he like Steve had other things on his mind. Now he was wondering what that meant? How would he see his Dad, what about Helen? Then he started thinking about Mark his older brother who lived in Australia. Would they ever see Dad again? Australia had already closed it’s border, but he had not really thought much about it, neither had his Dad. Well he hadn’t mentioned it. John was starting to get worried now. He hadn’t really thought about himself and the impact it would have on him.
John had so many thoughts running through his head now. About Dad, Helen, Mark, his sister Rachael, Angie, and Tobey. What is going to happen, how are they all going to stay connected? What if his dad died, he wasn’t ready for that, he had so much to catch up on, so much to say that needed saying. What if Mark never saw him again? John was starting to feel overwhelmed, tears started to roll down his cheeks. He messaged Helen and asked her to come round tonight.
That evening John and Helen were sat watching the Prime Ministers address. They sat and stared at the TV in shock. Their life had just been turned upside down. If they lived in different houses (like they do now) they would not be allowed to see each other. John and Racheal would have to decide if Patrick was in a bubble with John or Racheal, and then the other one would not be able to see him until the rules were relaxed. Tobey could still move between John’s and Angie’s but he would need to talk to Angie to see how that will work. He has heard that Angie was being redeployed to ICU. John’s mind was spinning, with what to do next.
John and Helen sat there and held each other, the thought of not being able to do this for months filled him with dread. Were they ready to live together though? This wasn’t like being on holiday, this would be life warts and all with a surly teenager in tow, who craves independence and contact with his mates. It will not be a walk in the park, and something not to be entered into lightly. But they had tonight to make a decision. Tonight was going to be a long night. First he needed to ring Rachael and Patrick to decide who was going to be in Patrick’s bubble. As John and Helen work in the hospital and there is a chance that Helen might have to work in ICU, he was worried that would put Patrick at risk, so if Helen was going to move in with him then Patrick should go in a bubble with Rachael who worked as a Health Visitor manager and no longer had contact with patients and was now working from home full-time. Sam her husband is a marketing manager and no doubt would also be working from home after tonight. It just made sense for Patrick to pair up with them, rather than John. It broke his heart thinking that he might never see him in the flesh again. He realised this was a complete over reaction, but he could not help himself. Both Rachael and Patrick were in complete agreement with the plan. Helen was worried about moving in with him, but like John could not imagine not seeing each other every week. The prospect of no sex for potentially months was unbearable for John and Helen. In the end this clinched it, they loved each other passionately and the physical part of it was an essential element. They would need some very strict ground rules on how their relationship would proceed. They both agreed that they would have to maintain their own space. John’s house had 4 bedrooms so Helen would have a bedroom for herself, a bolt hole for her somewhere where she could gather her thoughts and escape from the world. John would use one as an office, Tobey has his own room, and John and Helen have their bedroom. They were very conscious that Tobey lived in the house too, and Helen insisted that Tobey was involved in the conversation, and he had to agree before Helen moved in. As expected Tobey agreed, in fact he was overjoyed, he loved Helen, loved having her around, she kept things calm and she was a wonderful cook.
Helen thought she would be staying the night so had brought some work clothes. She was happy to stay at John’s but nervous about whether they would get fed up with each other. She knows how intense she can get especially when under pressure and she needs how much John avoids difficult situations, even though he thinks he tackles life full on. He doesn’t, when life gets really tough he becomes very introspective, and looks for things to make him happy rather than confronting what is difficult, hence a series of failed relationships. She knows she can be difficult to live with and her intensity can be too much. Naresh (her ex-husband) sited that as the reason why he had an affair, to escape from the smothering intensity. She thought he was a cheating arsehole trying to blame her for his infidelity, but it did trouble her, she knew it was an issue. Naresh wasn’t the first man to accuse her of being smothering and high maintenance. So far she has been able to manage this with John as she could find her own space by going back to her house. What was different this time was that they both talked about their frailties and shortcomings. They trusted each other enough to share the more problematic aspects of their personalities. They loved each other, but their love had never been tested to the limit. Then again whose had? These next few months were definitely going to test most people’s relationships. All she knew was right now the prospect of having no physical contact with John for God knows how long was unthinkable. It was worth taking the risk. She would go and collect her things after work and move in.
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