Legendary grandmother who committed life to hugging soldiers passes away

[Shotz]

Source: [url]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/26/legendary-grandmother-who-committed-life-to-hugging-soldiers-passes-away/[/url]

[IMG]https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_908w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2015/11/13/Local/Images/Hug_Lady_01__10321447451771.jpg&w=1484[/IMG]
[i]Elizabeth Laird, 77, hugs Sgt. Michael Flanders as he arrives inside the Larkin Terminal at the Robert Gray Army Airfield after coming home from a tour in Iraq. Second in line is Staff Sgt Christopher Jonhson. (Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman)[/i]

[QUOTE]She was known simply as the “hug lady” and for a generation of soldiers deployed from Fort Hood to Iraq and Afghanistan, the diminutive grandmother was a steadying presence over the past 12 years.

Elizabeth Laird doled out hundreds of thousands of hugs, embracing soldiers as they shipped off and then greeting them in kind when they arrived back home. She made her hugs available at all hours of the day, regardless of the weather, becoming a military legend along the way.

“This is my way of thanking them for what they do for our country,” Laird told FoxNews.com last month. “I wasn’t hugging in 2003. I used to just shake their hands. But one day, a soldier hugged me, and that’s the way it started.”

For much of that time Laird was quietly waging a battle of her own against breast cancer, as The Washington Post’s Colby Itkowitz reported after Laird was hospitalized in early November.[/QUOTE]

[Rocko's]

Hearing all the stories about her and how she made so many soldiers days as they were shipped off or came home by hugging them and wishing them the best made me tear up hard to hear that she passed. She truly was an amazing person. Cancer is a monster...

[megafat]

I feel like this would be like having your grandmother pass away.

[n0cturni]

[quote]Elizabeth Laird doled out hundreds of thousands of hugs, embracing soldiers as they shipped off and then greeting them in kind when they arrived back home[/quote]

It's kind of depressing knowing that not all the people she hugged as they left made it back to greet her again. What an awesome thing to do, though.

[suzume]

No return hug for soldier still deployed. :cry:

[-Rusty-]

Omg! :(

I went to Iraq twice. She was there to hug us when we left the US both times and when we got back.

[Erkor]

someone has to take her place
now

[JumpinJackFlash]

[QUOTE=erkor;49406303]someone has to take her place
now[/QUOTE]I'd totally do it but I look like a violent rapist so I doubt it would have the same heartwarming effect.