Through the Eyes of the Elderly: Life Under Lockdown or What to Avoid in Future Crises

In this chapter I share how I adapted my normal methods of biographical interviewing and areas of interest to work within the confines created by the Covid-19 pandemic, devising a form of ‘Impressionistic’ research. Finding myself thrust into the position of informal carer by the need to keep a formerly independent elderly relative isolated and safe, I focussed my narrative gaze on the plight of older people, finding ways to collect pertinent data that was only minimally bounded by ‘social bubbles’ and social ‘distancing’ despite the ‘new normality’ of non-contact. Importantly, I found a way to provide a voice for the very old, who – unable to use digital media, forbidden to sit around outside or mix inside with others, stripped of their customary local social activities – became largely invisible to the outside world.