A Las Cruces woman loses her hat at an airport. It's not just any hat. It belonged to her late mother, who died of breast cancer -- and an attempt to find the hat is going viral.

What started out as a grassroots grass-roots attempt at finding Hughes' hat has turned into something much more -- and bigger than she could have ever imagined.

Something, she says, that isn't even about just her anymore.

"My mother battled breast cancer for two years; she passed away when I was 7, in 1997," said Bridget Hughes.

Most memories Hughes has of her mother are when she was sick and of her wearing hats to cover the effects of the devastating disease.

"She had this beautiful, dark, short curly hair, so it was really sad to see it slowly fall out," said Hughes.

One of those hats was given to Hughes years after her mom's passing by her aunt when she first moved to Las Cruces.

"I've taken it with me all sorts of places the past year, as just kind of a, I guess a way for my mom to experience what I'm experiencing," said Hughes.

Hughes was flying back to El Paso from Tampa on Sunday when she had a layover in Phoenix -- then her flight was canceled. Hughes misplaced her precious keepsake -- in the midst of hustling and bustling airport chaos.

"I thought I had put it in my simple drawstring backpack but I woke up the next morning and went to put it on and I realized it wasn't there," said Hughes.

Hughes scoured the airport, the hotel she'd stayed at overnight and even the courtesy van -- but came up with nothing. So her friends took to social media to start the search.

"I really was not expecting at all for it to go as viral as it did, and it really went rapidly," said Hughes.

The picture had about 35 shares when she went to bed on Tuesday; on Wednesday when she went to bed, it had 18,000. The page currently has more than 160,000.

Hughes is receiving outpour responses from all over the world -- from Australia to Nigeria -- hearing stories of lost loved ones and precious mementos. Though she'd like to ultimately get her hat back, she says she doesn't feel like it's just about her anymore.

"It's been a real experience of commonality with people I never would have met otherwise," said Hughes.