‘Hug lady’ has welcomed home soldiers with open arms for over a decade

Elizabeth Laird figures she has hugged about half a million departing and returning soldiers in her 12 years as the ‘hug lady.’

The 83-year-old spent over a decade sitting at the airport in Fort Hood, Texas, greeting and sending off soldiers since the start of the Iraq war in 2003, reports USA Today.

Today, Laird is in the hospital, fighting breast cancer that has spread to her lungs. Since she is unable to fulfill her role as the ‘hug lady,’ the soldiers are coming to her.

“The hug lady was very inspirational in my first deployment to Afghanistan. She touched my heart,” retired Army Capt. Caren Adkins told USA Today. “[She] had an impact on so many lives.”

Laird was admitted to the hospital earlier this month. Her son, Richard Dewees set up a Go Fund Me page shortly thereafter in hopes of raising $10,000 for her medical bills, the Huffington Post reports.

As of Wednesday, the page had raised nearly $83,000.

“They just want to thank her, for encouraging them, for giving them something to look for … they knew when they went over there, when they came back, someone would be waiting,” Dewees told The Washington Post. “A lot of them say they don’t have families, but they have her.”

Laird told USA Today she started hugging soldiers after one soldier hugged her first.

“If I can bring a smile to their face, if I can lift their spirits a bit, if I can let them know we care, it’s my way of saying ‘thank you for what you do,’ ” Laird told The Statesman in 2010.

Dewees told The Washington Post his mother would like to go back to the airfield, to greet soldiers in person, but he is looking into setting up Skype so the soldiers can at least see her.

“She won’t be able to hug them,” he said, “but she’ll still be there with them.