Military families have hard lives. The military spouse is often sent on deployment, with no guarantee of ever returning. Relationships can become strained with such prolonged time spent at a distance. When talking about the military, most people immediately think of the stressors faced by the person deployed— but, in most cases, military life can take its toll on the entire family.
Most recently, scientists have been examining military families and are starting to notice a few trends. “Service members marry younger and start families earlier,” one 2013 study reports. “They move much more frequently than civilians do, and they are often separated from their families for months at a time.” As you can imagine, living this way can be particularly stressful.
That’s the life Bethany Bronson was living while her husband, Captain Hyrum Bronson had been deployed in Afghanistan for nine months.
While her husband traveled between Afghanistan and the United States for training, Bethany had been staying with their children at the US military base on Okinawa Island in southern Japan. Here, she found herself taking on many roles, as most military spouses do.
“Parents left stateside develop their own ways of operating as they are forced to take on responsibilities that were previously shared,” explained Ellen Weber Libby Ph.D.
Although some spouses may take on the duties enthusiastically, others may hold resentments about the added workload.
Luckily for Hyrum, Bethany was a trooper and was doing all she could to hold things down at the fort.
Even though life had been going well for Bethany and the children, she missed her husband greatly. If she could wait three whole weeks though, he’d soon be in her arms. Hyrum had planned a visit and his family could not wait. But little did they know, he had a surprise in store…
One day, as Bethany and the kids are splashing in the water at the beach, a family friend pulls out a camera and starts to record.
He tells the children he wants to a send a video to their father in Afghanistan and asks what they’d like to tell him.
“I’d tell him that I love him and I miss him and that I will love him for always,” the daughter responds. Then he turns the camera to Bethany; “Love you, miss you!” she says with a smile. The man distracts Bethany for a few moments…
Then behind Bethany, you see a man in a scuba suit begin to emerge from the water.
“Who is that?” Bethany asks her younger daughter, not realizing it’s her husband in the flesh. When Hyrum removes the scuba mask though, his wife is in total shock. “Are you kidding me?” the woman shouts.
“Mrs. Bronson,” Hyrum tells her, “Your husband’s here reporting for duty.”
The children are ecstatic to see their Daddy, but he tells his wife Bethany that she gets the first hug.
The couple lovingly embraces in the water, their children huddled at their side.
Since being uploaded to YouTube, Hyrum’s homecoming surprise has been viewed over 19 MILLION times!
“After being in Afghanistan for 6 months and 3 months of training in the States before that with only a short month home in between, he is finally home!” Bethany wrote in the video’s description.
“We thought he was coming home 3 weeks from now, but he is sneak. We can’t believe he is finally back home with us!”
See the heartwarming reunion below!
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