It’s been 12 long years since Elizabeth Laird, a woman living in central Texas, began a sweet tradition of sending off soldiers and welcoming them home with a hug. Known as “the hug lady,” her routine has been to show up at the airport and wait to give as many warm hugs as she can.
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Addressing the value of the gesture, 87-year-old Elizabeth says,
“It brings a little light to you, to know that someone cares enough about you to love you… and a complete stranger at that,” one soldier told kxan.
But now sad news has struck. Elizabeth is in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the hospital as she has been battling breast cancer for the past 11 years. But with that, the tables have turned. To show how much her sweet hugs have meant to them, soldiers are flocking to the hospital to embrace Elizabeth just as she’s done for them for more than a decade.
Many people are also contributing to a GoFundMe account started to help Elizabeth pay for her medical bills. Watch the full story of this sweet woman in the video below.
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