'Starved of emotional food': Sask. residents can't wait to hug again

When was the last time you gave someone outside of your household a hug?

With most provinces in the process of easing COVID-19-relatedrestrictions, hugs are a simple gesture that people are excited to get back to.

B.C.'s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, even pitched having a July "hug day" to her premier.

Here in Saskatchewan, hugging is something that some people have already managed to do. With the province slowly moving through the phases of its reopening plan and loosening public health restrictions, seeing loved onesonce againand hugging them seems in sight.

Leniuk hadn't hugged her mother Evelyn, who lives in a Regina care home, since November2020. They were finally able to in late May.

"Even though we probably shouldn't have they really want you to keep your distance there does come a point where you just have to give your mom a hug," said Terri Leniuk.

"It's just a different connection. We've been kept apart for so long during a time when all we wanted was to be was together, with so much uncertainty and so many things happening, and to be physically kept apart like that... It's just been a really long haul."

Through tears, Terri's mom described the hug as "pretty special".

Grandmother Katherine Chang is another self-described hugger.

She can't quite pinpoint when she fell in love with hugging, but chalked it up to just loving people.

"I don't think anybody deserves to be sad, to have a poor life, or to be poor. There's a lot of sad people here in this world," said Chang. "And I was thinking, if I give them a hug, maybe that will help."

Chang said that she can't wait to get back to hosting Chinese New Year's events and hugging every person that comes through the door. In the meantime, she's relishing the few hugs she's been able to have with her grandchildren.

Why are hugs so important?

A touch expert said he isn't at all surprised that people have been desperately missing hugs.

Paul Gabias is a professor at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus who has studied touch extensively. He said that touch is essential for our well-being.

"Hugs allow us to use our whole body for communicating love and affection. So this new social setup has really blunted our capacity to express love and affection," he said.

He said that an uptick of pet adoptions over the course of the pandemic was not just a way for people to deal withloneliness, but also a way for people to satisfy their need forphysical touch.

"We weren't starved of food and water, but we were starved for a whole year, 14 months, of emotional food," he said.

Gabias said that while he doesn't necessarily think everyone will start hugging strangers without context once the pandemic ends, at least with the people we know, there will be a "fair bit" of it.

As for Terri Leniuk, she said she can see a desire for touch at her mom's care home.

"You see folks who are just craving that physical touch, and they just want to be close and havethat conversation. It was just really nice to be able to finally have that again."