Airport 'Hug Lady' is sick, troops flock to her bedside

Jim Douglas | WFAA-TV, Dallas

Show Caption Hide Caption Troops flock to bedside of sick 'Hug Lady' Elizabeth Laird made it her mission to hug every Fort Hood soldier headed off to war... or coming home. Now, military personnel are returning the favor as she battles a serious illness.

KILLEEN, Tx. — Retired Army Staff Sgt. Edmond Clark entered the hospital room and stood over 83-year-old Elizabeth Laird. He took her hand.

“You mind if I hug and kiss you?” he asked. “Please do,” she replied.

He bent down and hugged her neck. “I love you so much,” he whispered. His eyes reddened. “I just had to come and see you.”

Edmond Clark went to war three times. Each time, Elizabeth Laird was there to hug him when he left... and when he came home.

She figures she’s hugged about a half-million departing or returning Fort Hood soldiers since the start of the Iraq war in 2003... spending hours as lines of men and women stooped to embrace her.

Soldiers simply call her the “hug lady.” Now they want to help her fight.

“I’ve had breast cancer since 2005,” Laird explained Wednesday in a soft voice. “It has metastasized to my bones and my lungs.”

Laird is now too sick to be where she wanted to be Wednesday: The Veterans Day parade in Killeen. Everyone in the crowd of vets and soldiers seemed to know her.

“The hug lady was very inspirational in my first deployment to Afghanistan; she touched my heart,” said retired Army Capt. Caren Adkins. “One American impacting so many lives.”

Staff Sgt. Kenneth Fiaoni said soldiers would talk about their encounter with Laird on the plane home.

“Every time coming back, we knew: 'Going to see the hug lady,'" he said, knowing that Laird would be there, no matter the day or time.

Now she can’t be.

So they come to her at Metroplex Hospital in Killeen. Young Spc. Kindra Rimes brought her flowers.

“Support the troops with yellow,” Laird told her. “I’ll bring yellow bows tomorrow,” Rimes replied.

Elizabeth Laird said she started hugging military personnel because a deploying soldier hugged her first. She said she has a simple reason for seeing them face-to-face.

“I want them to know God will take care of them. But they have to ask Him,” she explained.

And for those who didn’t return? She sighs.

“For several years, whenever they had a memorial service, I’d go out and hug their families,” Laird said.

She understands loss. Laird's husband and daughter died suddenly in the same week in 2008. Still, she came to the soldiers. Now they’re hugging back, helping to raise more than $50,000 for her long-term care through a GoFundMe account set up by her son.

Elizabeth Laird has refused chemotherapy and radiation treatments; she prefers to battle her illness using prayer and purpose.

She tells Edmond Clark she hopes to be out in a few days, although she looks too frail to move.

“Got flights coming up,” she tells him. “Got to get out and hug you.”

“Yes ma'am,” the soldier replied. “You have always been there. Always will be.”

For more stories of acts of kindness, visit Humankind on Facebook.