I woke up with back pain, which has been the norm for the past few weeks, but today I am determined to go out for a good walk. My friend Diane has suggested meeting in the park near my house, keeping to social distancing of course. I managed to leave my house yesterday, for the first time this month, and go to my local shop for milk and bread. It hurt, but it was so satisfying. I get a text at 2.30pm. She’s on her way. Harehills Park is only a few minutes walk from my house, but today it’s a painful shuffle, and it’s probably taken me twice as long to get there. I find a well needed bench in the sunshine near the entrance to wait for Diane to turn up. The back pain makes me uncomfortable but it seems to disappear when Diane finally arrives.

It’s so strange on meeting, not to go straight in for a hug, and we sit at opposite ends of the bench, like nervous teenagers on a first date. We chat and laugh about what life in isolation has been like. Not having seen each other for ten weeks, there’s lots to say, and we continue as we walk to the next bench, where I have to sit and rest again. I am definitely feeling the benefit of being out of my house. I walk Diane to the bus stop, and she leaves with a wave – and no hug.

I hobble home to find that, somewhere along the walk, I’ve lost my wallet. Pretty depressed after such a good afternoon, I cancel cards and text Diane, who offers to come back and go look for it, but I’ve no idea where it could have dropped. A knock at my door a couple of hours later, and the guy who owns Misha Food Shop is standing at my door, wanting to know if I’ve lost my wallet, as he found it near his shop, all intact. I’m dumbfounded. I offer him some cash for returning it, which he refuses. I am so thankful, not so much for the money, the cards or the driving licence – but I have two irreplaceable pictures in my wallet, one of me and my mum when I was one year old, and one of Abbie my first grandchild, when she was two years old. They’re priceless to me.

I do, when I can, volunteer for Leeds Cares, a charity that does so much for many hospitals in Yorkshire. So I make a donation of £20 in the name of Misha Food Shop as a thank you for returning my wallet. They will even send a card to Misha, to let him know about the donation, which is great. So, a day of highs and lows and highs again. I go to bed with the kindness of friends and strangers in my head, and a twinge of pain in my back: a reminder that it’s not done with me yet.