FOR James Grant celebrating his 40th birthday this month was a milestone he was just grateful to see.
It has been a long journey of recuperation for Mr Grant who is living with the affects of 'long covid.'
As the country was beginning to lockdown last March, Mr Grant began to feel unwell with covid symptoms. He had been trying to get better at home, but a visit from his local GP in Hamilton led to him being hospitalised.
"I had been feeling worse and unable to breathe properly and it was my own GP who followed up to see how I was doing," said the South Lanarkshire publican. "I ended up being taken to hospital and put in an induced coma to help my body recover. When I woke up I thought I had only been out for a day or so, but it was nearer two weeks."
Read more: Covid memorial: How I Remember theme can reach out to help culture of recuperation
It has been a long and slow recovery for Mr Grant, who runs the Cosy Corner Bar in Hamilton, taking each day at a time and gradually building up his strength. Even lifting shopping or carrying heavy items are all things which have proved to be more difficult.
James Grant celebrates his 40th birthday with sisters Michelle Grant and Annemarie Barghati
He added: "It took all my strength just to try to walk again. It has been a difficult road, but I have had a lot of great support. I took a double hit during the pandemic. Not only did I get covid, I am also a publican and my bar was shut.
"It was great to be able to open the doors again and my regulars had all been wishing me well. I am very grateful that I got to see my 40th birthday.
"I know I am lucky to be as I did lose a close friend earlier this year - I know how devastating covid can be to a family."
It is people like Mr Grant who we are trying to reach out to through our campaign to create Scotland's national covid memorial.
The Herald's campaign marked its first anniversary last week and so far we have raised more than £60,000 towards the memorial which will be located in Glasgow's Pollok Country Park. However, it is the hope that what can be created in the park will also have a ripple effect across the country to allow communities to remember.
Read more: Covid Scotland: Next step in memorial campaign is welcomed as anniversary is marked
We have recently appointed artist Alec Finlay along with his team of Lucy Richards and Ken Cockburn to lead engagement and gather the thoughts and feelings of people like Mr who have been through the most difficult times of covid.
Mr Finlay will be holding a series of workshops and is reaching out to people through the theme of I Remember - personal accounts which will give a sense of what people have felt during the pandemic.
Mr Finlay said: "Supporting one another in the pandemic has become important. A lot of people have been struggling but a lot have been offering support so we have the good and bad to work with."
Artist Alec Finlay who has been appointed to lead the artistic engagement process for the memorial with Lucy Richards who will also be working on the project. Picture by Stewart Attwood.
The 55-year-old artist is also on a journey of recovery with long covid and was honoured when he was appointed to lead the artistic commission. He also has strong links to park as it was his great aunt, Anne Maxwell Macdonald, of the Maxwell family, who gifted the park to then the Glasgow corporation in 1966. It was with the understanding that the grounds would be of public use.
Mr Finlay added: "The memorial has to be about our adjustment as well. When we look back at the Second World War, we were aware that a lot of war memorials were made. And we are now aware of how many of our fathers or grandfathers were affected and people were writing novels 20 to 30 years afterwards trying coming to terms with what they had been through.
"So this won’t be a memorial just about death it will also be about a time of crisis and hope for adaptation.
A lot of people have got the equivalent of a post-viral illness in long covid and is really very similar to ME. I have lived through 30 years of that illness being neglected. People not being given help or the illness recognised.
"I can work part time but the illness does affect me. So I want to speak up for an illness that doesn’t have a definition yet, we have all got used to the term long covid and I believe art is a way of representing complex reality.
We need to listen to people with long covid to help other people understand."
For Mr Grant summing how how he would remember, he says: "Live life to the max is what I will take away from this. Going through this it makes me appreciate family and friends even more than I did before. I have a lot of hurdles to climb, but I will get there."
To find out more or to submit an I Remember account email iremember2021@yahoo.com
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