Playing cards in the Bee Park Community Centre in Manorhamilton this afternoon, members of the Kilgar Day Centre Group in Co Leitrim reflected on how the Covid-19 pandemic affected them and how great it is to be out and about meeting people again.
For these older people who live on their own in the surrounding area, isolating was challenging but as Dorothy McClements says, you had to keep the brain active with television, word searches and other activities and take it one day at a time.
Nonetheless the period was a lonely one.
Patrick Eames says they were very much "housed in" for a year and he missed meeting people.
"You would get down - looking at the walls and they seemed to get closer to you every day," he says.
Now, though, Patrick says, everything is fine and and he is back out again. Only for the centre though, he says he would be lost, "it has been a wonderful lifesaver for an awful lot of people".
Mary Fox describes isolating during Covid as terrible. She lives on her own and was lonely and felt she "went down".
It was so bad, she said, she had to go on tablets. Now, however, Mary is back out and feels safe thanks to the vaccination programme. She attends groups in Manorhamilton and Glenfarne and advises anyone who hasn't stepped out again to do so and start meeting people again.
Michael Kerrigan agrees. Covid was devastating for him and the hardest part, he says, was probably the funerals of neighbours, friends and family. Michael says he had experienced all three and found it hard.
Like Mary he feels safer now thanks to the vaccination programme although he says if he was going somewhere where there was going to be a big crowd, he would give it some thought before going.
The bottom line for all members of the Kilgar group, however is that their regular gatherings at the Beepark and other centres are great, and their advice to others is to take that step and get back out and about meeting people again to feel a whole lot better.
