Untitled – Zahir Ali

Winning entry in the 6 to 10 years category.

It was early in the morning on a school day, when suddenly my mum turned on the tv and said ‘watch the news, it is very important’’. My brother and I both sat in the living room in silence watching the news with our mum. The news was showing that many people have lost their lives to coronavirus and that this virus is spreading rapidly. This was quite scary as people were going crazy buying toilet rolls more than buying food. Also the news stated that schools would be closed as they feel it is a high risk if there are too many people together. This virus enjoys attacking people when there’s so many people gathered together and to stop the spread we had to avoid contact with others.

Now how do I react to this? I understand that we weren’t going to school but I surely miss my friends and teachers. Learning began online, it was fun in the beginning but it got boring as it gets tiring but i still try to do my learning. From 9am to 3pm our house has become a school and my mum started working from home, after 3pm it was time to relax. Time was hard because we were no longer able to see family and friends. Even during Eid, one of our celebrations, I couldn’t even see my grandma. On Eid day my mum still stayed up till late and decorated the living room with balloons and banners to make us feel special. We woke up early and prayed the special prayer for Eid as my mum put all the prayer mats and made the living room feel like a mosque. She didn’t want us to feel sad and that’s why she put in a lot of effort to start the day feeling happy and special. Me and my brother helped my mum set the table so that we can eat the delicious food that my mum had prepared. I cut some tomatoes and my brother cut some cucumbers for the salad that we were going to eat. It actually tasted very scrumptious because it was a team effort.

Later that day we called my grandma on facetime and saw her wearing her new clothes and we showed our new clothes to her. My cousins also joined in the conversation and were talking for a while, everyone was very happy to see each other. Whilst on the phone my mum added my aunty to the facetime call so that we were all connected together. We all smiled and laughed and tried not to think about the virus as this would have upsetted everyone. Once the call ended me and my brother played Fortnite for a bit with our friends from school, this was fun as we said Eid Mubarak to each other and asked what they have been doing so far. Everyone was kind of doing similar things to us as well. Some way or another everyone tried to stay connected to their loved ones and made sure to have a positive vibe during this difficult time.

It was coming to 4pm and my mum decided to take us on a long drive to visit our granddad’s grave. We were excited because it takes us 1 hour and 20 mins to get to the cemetery and we usually enjoy going to visit whenever we are free. Once we got to the cemetery we saw other people who also came to visit their loved ones. We spent nearly two hours at my grandad’s grave and spoke about the memories we had with him. I put some roses on my grandad’s grave and wished he was alive. It was sad but my mum gave me a hug and told me that he is watching and he can hear you. She told me not to be sad and said ‘say goodbye and that we will visit again soon’. Soon after we left the cemetery and drove to Tesco petrol station, me and my brother waited in the car while my mum went to get us a surprise. My mum had to wait in a queue and that’s when we remembered about the virus again… Only two people at a time were allowed to go into the shop. Then I spotted my mum coming out of the shop with two boxes of ferrero rocher, my mouth was watering as I couldn’t wait to take a bite into the chocolate. She came next to the car and gave each of us a box and told us to eat two for now.

As my mum drove off, I started munching on my chocolate and loved every bit of it. Told her thank you so much for getting my favourite chocolate and put one in her mouth as well. This was actually one of my favourite days in such a long time and I was enjoying myself so much. Half way through the journey I drifted off a little as I woke up early to pray. Coming close to our house I woke up and I said ‘Are we there yet?’. Once we arrived home I had a quick shower and then had our dinner. We then put on a film to watch and relaxed on the sofa and a few times my aunty called to see what we were doing.

Overall I had an amazing day with my mum and my brother, I actually really enjoyed myself. It was different but we managed to defeat coronavirus as we had a lovely day with the family regardless. It was nearly bedtime and my mum showed all the pictures that she took from morning and throughout the day. We all looked happy in the pictures and sent some to my grandma and aunty to see. They also send us pictures that they took during the day. Eid was different from our usual celebration but I feel that it turned out to be one the best ones I have had.

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