A woman from Iowa has spent most of his life taking care of children.

The local government honored the 75-year-old with a resolution of appreciation.

For fifty years, Linda Herring has taken care of children while running a home daycare and working sleepless nights as a custodian.

In an interview with CNN, the kindhearted woman said she has given children a home no matter how old they were, even if they had special needs.

“I would just love [my foster kids] just like they were my own, probably more than I should,” she told CNN. “I cried when the kids would leave my home, no matter how long they had been there.”

Herring also said to the outlet that she became inspired to foster children when her best friend started providing shelter to young girls.

“My best friend was doing foster care for teenage girls and I thought, ‘Well, that would be nice to do the same,’ but I wanted little kids,” Herring shared. “So, I talked to the Department of Human Services and agreed to take kids with medical needs.”

Herring has five biological children but she still decided to adopt three children. One of them was Anthony Herring.

Anthony told CNN: “I appreciate being adopted even more today as a parent than I did when I was a child.

“I’m forever grateful for the life I was given. She and Dad have both taught me that family isn’t determined by blood — it’s who you have in your life to love.”

Herring fostered over children in the five decades since she began. She revealed that her health problems prevented her from taking in any more children.

“It was so hard for me to say goodbye to them,” she told CNN. “I always questioned, ‘Why do I keep doing this?’ because it was never easy to say goodbye to a child. But I kept doing it because I had so much love to give to these children in need.”

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