âThis will be our year,â one of my closest friends messaged me at the stroke of midnight back in January 2020. We have been through a lot together since we first met at the age of nine and we were both preparing to get married in the summer of last year, just a month apart. I was to say my vows in a pretty British vineyard close to home; she was to declare hers in a lush Portuguese garden. IÂ have since forbidden her from prophesying anything ever again.
The pandemic has been, for the most part, fairly indiscriminate. It has affected the whole nation, albeit in varying degrees. Nearly all big weddings that were planned for 2020 had to be postponed. At least, they were in my life. My older brother and younger sister were also due to tie the knot last year. My brother had a Zoom party to mark the missed occasion during that glorious spell of unseasonably warm weather back in April.