People remember where they stood when life shifted in a heartbeat. The memory stretches from the intimate moments of birth in delivery rooms to the moment the wider world realized that nothing would be the same. On March 14, Spain’s president declared a state of alarm, and the lockdown began.
It was March 11, with Spain crouched in fear as the anniversary of the attacks loomed, when the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The reports of a virus said to have emerged from a fish market in a distant place called Wuhan barely moved the dial at first, but Italy’s surge became a mirror that many Spaniards recognized themselves in.
What followed showed that the butterfly effect can take astonishing shapes. The eerie quiet of deserted hospitals contrasted with the shouting in emergency rooms. Shopping trips demanded diving goggles and kitchen gloves. Telework, online classes, videoconferences, and home experiments in bread making became everyday life. Wine on video calls, TikTok bread videos, and new rituals filled evenings. Weddings were postponed, students missed study trips, workers faced hard times, and those without a safety net found confinement a stark reality. Mothers gave birth without partners by their side, and grandmothers never got to meet their grandchildren.
The tally of new deaths rose by the hundreds, and the skating rink in the city center was repurposed as a morgue. The crisis exposed those who profited at the expense of others while many mourned and wondered how to protect the living. Deaths kept mounting, and countless goodbyes went unsaid, a long list of losses that lingered in the national memory.
Alone, or shouting from balconies, or clinking glasses over video screens, a vocabulary formed around the crisis. Distance, bubbles, variants, waves, and peaks entered daily life. Terms such as ERTE, PCR and PPE joined conversations alongside misinformation and denial. The phrase the new normal gained traction, while debates about what truly constitutes normal continued. By early 2021 vaccines appeared, with Pfizer and BioNTech reporting high efficacy in trials and Moderna following with strong results. Vaccines were authorized by regulators and soon became a beacon of hope amid the crisis, a turning point many hoped would end the worst.
Behind these events came a stark assessment. The Ministry of Health released a 2023 report to the autonomous communities showing that Spain was not fully prepared for a future pandemic and that progress had been uneven. The core warning was clear: a new respiratory virus pandemic is not only possible but likely within a short to medium timeframe, a reminder that guides policymakers to strengthen preparedness and resilience.
Yet after the fear and the applause, the promises to rebuild the health and labor infrastructure faded. Science and the healthcare system drifted back toward precarious conditions, with waiting lists and strained resources. The memory preserves the stories of healthcare workers, patients and essential staff, a reminder to demand better systems and more dignity in times of crisis.
Normality is defined as the quality or condition of being normal. The phrase is commonly illustrated by the idea of returning to normal life, a concept many cling to as a benchmark for recovery.
New normality describes a situation in which daily life changes due to a crisis or exceptional circumstances such as a pandemic. The term has entered everyday language to describe a redefined routine and new expectations for safety and resilience in society.
The question remains whether society will emerge wiser or merely more tired. The hopeful view is that someday normal life will be intelligent and just, as opposed to ordinary, with better decisions and fair policies guiding the way. The memory of these years serves as a reminder to pursue policies that protect lives and communities.