Two enterprising young Palmer, Nebraska boys, deeply upset that they could not hug their grandparents as their grandfather has bone cancer and thus contracting COVID-19 could be highly dangerous for him, constructed a “hugging station” made of plastic sheets through which they should share a hug with their grandparents while wearing long gloves.
The video was posted on Facebook by the boys’ mother, Jen Janovec Myers, who wrote, “So Matt’s dad has cancer and ever since Covid hit there has been very limited family contact. After a visit about a week ago and a very sad moment when they couldn’t hug the boys when they left, we decided to build a hugging station so they could hug Granny and Popo again!”
“The family laughed as Granny got her hugs, and Popo said, ‘Don’t forget about me!’” Yahoo Finance reported.
13-year-old Brady Myers said, “We haven’t gotten to actually hug them or anything like that, get close to them, since the end of February so.” His seven-year-old brother Max added that the structure was a surprise for their grandparents, saying, “Come out here and we’ll just put on these gloves and we’ll tell you what it is and we told them what it was and we told them to put it through the holes, and we just hugged them,” NBC 15 reported.
Brady said his mom had seen a video about a hugging station and decided they should assay an attempt. He continued, “My mom got all the material and stuff, and I just made it out of my imagination.”
The boys’ grandmother Donna said, “I just can’t believe they have done this, it’s great. I had to hug them longer. I said, we gotta do this again.” Her husband Rich said of the enforced separation they have had to endure, “We’re kind of adapting, but it isn’t easy. It’s hard; it makes you cry.”
The day after the hug, Rich went to Lincoln for chemotherapy. Brady said, “Making tomorrow better, I did that so it made my heart so happy that I could do that.” Max added, “Whenever he goes into the cancer center, we always know that he’s there because we know he’s going to get better every single day.”
Rich concluded, “Just treasure the times that you do see them, and hopefully they’ll get a vaccine and we’ll be able to live normally.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has written, “Having cancer currently increases your risk of severe illness from COVID-19. At this time, it is not known whether having a history of cancer increases your risk. … Adults of any age with certain underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19. Severe illness from COVID-19 is defined as hospitalization, admission to the ICU, intubation or mechanical ventilation, or death.”
Video below: