“They tell me how much my hug meant to them and how they’ll never forget it,” Laird said. “A lot of [them were] leaving home for the first time and some of their families couldn’t be there to see them off.”

Trish, the wife of a soldier, says “The Hug Lady is the last one they see before deployment and the first civilian they see when they return. She’s there at 2 am, even if only a couple soldiers are on the flight.”

Laird’s son Richard Dewess started a GoFundMe account to raise money for her hospital bills, and they have already raised $85,000 in just 2 weeks.