Dear LPG,

Did you know that January the 21^st was also National Hug day? 

I know that we are about as far away from that day of the year as we can be at the moment because there will be another 236 days before it comes around again, and the question that we all have to ask ourselves is, by the time we get to next January will we all be taking a hug for granted again?

I have no doubt that we are all living on virtual hugs at the moment; the kind we get from a phone call to a friend or the reaction of the memory when we pass a framed picture of someone we love and can’t be near at the moment.

Most of the time we tend to take hugs for granted don’t we? Or should I say that we used to until we were all locked down.  In spite of the fact that so many of us are now lucky enough to have got through this crisis by chatting on the phone or video talking with our loved ones, there is no substitute for a hug or even just a touch.

But you can’t hug or even touch each other these days without a certain element of risk. This must be particularly hard for those who are literally self-isolating; I mean those self-sufficient capable people, who are so often elders, who have been following government guidelines by not leaving their houses.  So I just want to say that when we finally get the ‘all clear’ I look forward to a premature celebration of this event.

I think that I am one of many who must feel the same when I say that I, for one, cannot wait to give a few literal hugs away because the virtual ones are just not the same.

SD, Deptford