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I can hardly write this through my tears. I am truly devastated and want to pay tribute to someone. A dear friend, a hero, a true humanitarian and activist, someone who not only bravely stood up for those she didn’t know, but stood up for me personally when I needed someone, has passed away unexpectedly.

It was brought to my attention that Marcy Bruno was on life support last night after being hospitalized due to a series of complications following a previous surgery. Her passing was sudden and perplexing to many of us. Only a few days ago, she was fighting the good fight, despairing over some news she got about a hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay and asking me to get the story out. She seemed fine other than what she was going through emotionally about the plight of the prisoners.

Her son is Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, someone you’ve seen me write about for four years now. Marcy was a fierce advocate for Barry and the defense of his client, a Gitmo detainee named Fayiz Al-Kandari, who has been unfairly imprisoned for 11 years. She fought tirelessly for his cause, and others’, and Barry has just let me know that we must continue this fight in her honor.

I promise I will. Count on it.

Marcy cared deeply about those she loved, and those who she believed were wronged. In this case, Marcy was wronged. She died way too young.

I’ll miss you terribly, Marcy. Thank you for your compassion, humility, unselfishness, your big heart, your courage, your generosity, your words and your deeds. And thank you deeply for all the love and support you’ve given to so many of us. You were fearless.

In her honor, I am bumping up this post from April 28, 2012:

One of my first and best friends on Twitter goes by “tosexyformy” (@tosfm), but her real name is Marcy Bruno. Her Twitter bio reads, “Son is a Gitmo attorney seeking to spread truth and find justice for Fayiz Al-Kandari. Who is being held without charges in Gitmo. In a pool of tears.” (I’ve written about her son, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, and Fayiz extensively here and here.)

Barry’s always been a hero to me, but he now has competition: His mom. Last night, acting as a genuine, real-life Good Samaritan, she saved a very young life. Via CBS:

Police say a Good Samaritan spotted the child just after 8 p.m. and reported it…

Here’s a video (unembeddable) that Marcy linked to on Twitter in which she is briefly interviewed.

“I saw this littler person running and he wasn’t about to stop,” said Marcie Bruno. “I’ve never seen a 2-year-old run so fast. I kept pleading with him to stop and that I would find his mother. Finally he turned around and threw both hands up in the air and he allowed me to pick him up.”

Another dear friend, @Tymlee, describes Marcie perfectly in this tweet:

Her son rescues detainees in Gitmo and she rescues babies wandering the streets! Beat that!

Here is Marcy’s version of events in a series of her own tweets:

I found him….she said she went shopping. It was dark and cold.

Poor baby was so fearful.

He was put in bed and she left… that day…he got out.

I was returning to my office and saw this little tyke running thru the alley and different alley ways. He was fast!

Ahhh, twaz a Forrest Gump moment…anyone would have done the same.

I hear the baby is doing well.

I ran my old butt off..he was fast..he finally stopped as i pleaded, he threw his arms up and i picked him up. there’s a river near.

I feared he’d be hit by a car or run to the river. Temperature went down to the high 30′s last night.

Actually, I ran him into my office and sent a guy to get the police. The baby and I were both covered in his bm.

…but we managed to get him warm and clean.

I called the one news station to get answers about what happened to him. I’d love to see him again..we’ll see.

Now you know why I admire her so much.  Note to conservatives: This is what being pro-life really means.