The absence of a simple gesture is often loud.
Be it a simple hug or a greeting, these simple expressions of appreciation are most felt in their absence.
In an airport near Fort Hood, soldiers going for deployment and coming home have always noted a constant in their base.
It may not look like it at first glance, but the old woman waiting for these servicemen has always been someone they looked forward to.
Elizabeth Laird was known as the Hug Lady.
In the airport, she has one simple task yet it is one of the most felt and most profound.
Soldiers coming through the airport are greeted by her hugs – a blessing as they go on their tours, and of welcome when they finally get home.
She started her little project back in 2003 when American forces invaded Iraq.
At first, she only settled for handshakes, but when a soldier came to hug her, she began giving hugs as well.
Soldiers look forward to seeing her.
Some soldiers can even fondly remember the exact day they received a hug and the little card they got from her containing Psalm 91.
She was in the airport in any weather and at in anytime she could be whether it was in the wee hours of the morning or late at night.
In her hugging career, they estimated that she has hugged over 500,000 soldiers.
Until one day, she never came back.
Being the local celebrity that she was, soldiers asked where she might’ve gone. Then, news reached the fort that their beloved “grandmother” was sick.
An unfortunate diagnosis
Laird was diagnosed with breast cancer. And instead of seeking radiation treatments and chemotherapy, she only asked for prayers.
With her old age, it seemed that she’d rather spend her days making someone feel better than just stay in the hospital.
The soldiers were quick to react.
Laird gave them love, especially in the time they needed it the most and so soldiers figured it was now their chance to give back.
They lined up outside Laird’s room.
Some of them are even from New York. And in the hospital, these dedicated men and women only had one mission – to hug their “Hug Lady”.
“When they enter the room, they give me a hug and then we talk about anything from their family to what it was like overseas or if they got a civilian job upon returning,” Laird told TODAY. “Sometimes the line is so long that we have to turn people away.”
Laird spent the last days of her life with the same love she generously gave. Her funeral was attended by generals and soldiers, together with her family and friends.
She was not only honored as a veteran of the Air Force but also as a valuable part of the community whose only mission is to spread love.
The room where soldiers wait for their flights has since been named in her honor.
And while some entities are raising funds to build her a monument, her family only requested one thing to help people remember her by – to continue the tradition of hugs.
Watch what these soldiers did when the “Hug Lady” stopped coming back to the airport.
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