PHOENIX — In the midst of the airport crowds on one of the busiest travel days of the year, moments of connections and re-connections are happening.
Stephanie Smith and her family came to Arizona to visit her parents for the holiday. Immediately, Smith's five-year-old son was scooped up into his grandpa's arms.
"We're always very anxious for them to come out to Arizona and visit us," Smith's mom said.
Among the 4.6 million Americans AAA expects to take to the skies for the holiday is Mike and Monica Olson's daughter, Emily. They came to Phoenix Sky Harbor to pick her up around noon on Wednesday with signs in hand.
"She's been serving a mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, for the last six months. She has another year left," Mike Olson said. "However, I have terminal cancer."
Mike is a now-retired Gilbert police officer. He's been fighting rare appendiceal cancer for four years.
"Four years ago, this month, I was told I had a year and a half. So I'm good," Mike Olson said.
Over that time, Mike Olson has undergone surgeries and chemotherapy but he says it's not working anymore.
"We got some bad news last week that it's progressing faster than we wanted. So, she decided that she's going to come home early so that she could spend more time with us," Mike Olson said.
So in the holiday rush, Emily Olson is coming home to finish her mission while living with her parents.
"It's nothing short of a miracle," Monica Olson said. "Typically, missionaries don't travel during the holidays but they made it happen for us and we're just really grateful."
The Olsons, complete with some friends and family, waited for Emily Olson inside Terminal 4 Wednesday, until finally she came through the crowd, dropping her bags to immediately hug her parents.
"It means a lot that our daughter can be here to spend the rest of whatever I have left," Mike Olson said.