On social media, memories pop up from a pandemic still going

Phillips at her home in Phoenix. When the anniversary of the pandemic arrived, Phillips was not eager for a trip down memory lane. The Phoenix woman had developed symptoms and quarantined with a suspected case of Covid-19 last spring, lost her mother to the disease in July, and been hospitalised herself in November, overwhelmed by grief and isolation. — AP

COLUMBUS, Ohio: When the pandemic passed the one-year mark, Lisa Phillips wasn’t exactly eager to walk down memory lane. She had developed symptoms and quarantined with a suspected case of Covid-19 last spring, lost her mother to the disease in July and been hospitalised in November from what she describes as a nervous breakdown fuelled by grief and isolation.

But Phillips also wasn’t ready to delete the apps that provide those reminders that showed her each day what she’d shared on social media just a year earlier. That pain, she says, shouldn’t be forgotten. So she still wanted to save the memories – but for later.