WILL things ever get back to normal? It’s a question that has been buzzing round my head the last few days.

I think it was sparked off by the VE Day celebrations. On my street there were socially distanced groups sitting outside their houses with their red, white and blue bunting, quaffing something suitable.

And the footage of VE Day on the television, along with watching the Churchill film ,The Darkest Hour, made me think of what it must have been like to have endured years of war and for it finally to end.

To have had the threat of bombs dropping on your home must have been terrifying. And to have seen some of the things those on the frontline saw, stayed with them for the rest of their lives (marked also by the fact that they never spoke of them).

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How many of them must have asked my same question: “Will we ever know normal again?”

Now it is easy to stretch the wartime metaphor and extend it to our present coronavirus challenge; perhaps a little too easy. No one is dropping bombs on us or laying flat our cities; but, nonetheless, we are facing a crisis.

And I for one do not think things will return to normal. After every loss and bereavement there is a time of grieving which turns into a new normal. On VE Day there were conga lines and street parties; huge joy and relief.

And all of this was tinged with the bitterness and grief of families having had loved ones killed in the conflict. But people, resilient as they are, built again.

So perhaps, on the other side of Covid-19, my question should be: “What will our new normal look like? My hope is that it will be marked by the same compassion and altruism that we have seen during 'Covid-time': people going out of their way to make life better for others; a flourishing volunteer force stepping up to help; and a desire to bring communities and generations together.

I think a new normal like that will do justice to those who have died, those who are grieving and all of us who carry on.