Love on lockdown: how the pandemic pushed relationships into hyperspeed

Couples that got together right before or during COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 had to navigate the early days of their relationships under unprecedented conditions.

The pandemic led some new couples to move in together well before they would have considered it otherwise.

For others, isolation led to them becoming very close much sooner than regular dating normally would have.

For David Walsh of Estevan, Sask., the love story started shortly before the pandemic with the best date he had ever had. Walsh went out with Ivan Slywka in Calgary on New Year's Eve 2019 after they met on a dating app.

Fast forward to March 2020, and Slywka was helping Walsh move into a friend's home in Calgary, right as the pandemic was beginning.

Then an ambulance pulled up to the house.

"The people in it get out in their hazmat gear and are going into the upstairs portion of the house, because the people upstairs had called 811 and they needed to be assessed for COVID," Walsh said.

Walsh told Slywka he couldn't go back into the house, because he'd either be quarantined or get sick.

"So Ivan was like, 'well, I guess we live together now. You can come live with me,'" Walsh said.

"It was a lot to process really fast. On the one hand I had the uncertainty and the scariness of the pandemic and the virus. And on the other hand there was the uncertainty and the scariness of this person who I definitely liked … but hadn't known them very long."

The new couple got to know each other quickly.

"When you're first dating, especially if you don't live together, you only see the side of that person that they want you to see. It's always them on their best day basically," Walsh said. "All of a sudden I see them all the time, good and bad."

Walsh said he is a generally guarded person. It had always taken him a while to open up. But because of lockdown, he had to let his guards down fast.

"It was an interesting and at times romantic experience, just because it was a level of intimacy I had never experienced before."

Walsh said he and Slywka would likely still be a couple even if the pandemic hadn't fast-forwarded the relationship, but they might not yet be living together. He said his own insecurities would have kept him from moving too quickly.

"I was like, 'Here is what I'm like, here are my needs. This is the best way to react. Can you do that?' And he'd be like, 'Oh yeah, for sure,'" Walsh said.

This shocked Walsh, who was used to his partners having to figure out how to respond to his needs over a longer period of time. But the pandemic forced him to communicate.

In April 2020, Slykwa got a great job opportunity in Estevan, which is about 185 kilometres southeast of Regina, but he was hesitant. Walsh was a full-time distance student at Asthabasca University, so he told Slykwa he would move with him.

"He didn't want to let us go. I [didn't] either."

The couple moved to Saskatchewan in June 2020. Walsh said the pandemic made him braver in his relationship.

"I couldn't get in my own way this time. It's just been a very liberating experience overall," said Walsh.

"There may be an element of closeness because of shared trauma. The pandemic has been really traumatic and I know that that can bring people closer together."

So what did his family and friends think of the couple moving in together in March then moving to another province just months later?

"I think each member of my immediate family … whenever I said what I was doing, it was basically 30 seconds of silence. Are then … 'are you sure?'" said Walsh. "Some of them thought I'd lost my mind."

The couple bought a house together in Estevan in 2021. They remain deeply in love.

A pandemic courtship

Bailey and Jordaan Braun met on a dating app in July 2020.

"I told myself, 'Bailey, you're gonna take things slow this time. You're gonna slow it right down,'" Bailey said.

They started talking on the 17th, had a first date on the 20th, the second on the 22nd and the third on the 24th.

They were hooked. So much for taking it slow.

Jordaan lived in Moose Jaw and Bailey lived more than 200 kilometres away in Saskatoon, where she was studying at the University of Saskatchewan. But classes had gone entirely online due to COVID-19, so nine months after meeting Jordaan, Bailey decided she had the freedom to move to Moose Jaw to be near him.

"It really helped speed things along. We were able to just get to know each other so much quicker."

The speed of the relationship meant that Jordaan was privy to the goings-on in Bailey's family very quickly.

"We were dealing with my father's ALS diagnosis and some other losses in the family. Because [Jordaan] was my person, he was in my bubble, he was just getting to know that information so much sooner," Bailey said.

"Having that medical diagnosis for my father, it was really scary for my family and we were very, very cautious. He really supported me through that, kept me grounded."

The Brauns didn't even go on their first movie date  — a staple for new couples — until after they got engaged in 2021. They married in August 2022.

Bailey said that if it weren't for the pandemic, they probably wouldn't be married yet.

"The pandemic definitely helped us to get that quality time that otherwise we probably wouldn't have."

She looks forward to telling her future children how their parents got engaged and married during a pandemic.

"When my kids go to their very first movie date at, you know, 14 years old … I'm going to remind them that wasn't a luxury for us back in the day," she said, laughing.