Photo via: CBSN
The last person Tamara Twiner expected to see on her wedding day was her son Zaykeese Riley, as he had already shipped out to basic training after enlisting in the army.
“On the day my mother was going to get married, I hadn’t seen her in six months,” Riley said in a video posted by the Facebook group Military Kind. “I’m serving in the United States Army, and I was at basic training. So when my mother found out that I was not going to be able to make it to her wedding, she was devastated.”
Raising him and his brother as a single parent, Riley wanted to show up for his mother’s special day in the same way she’s always shown up for him. So, taking his grandmother’s advice, he wrote a letter to his chain of command requesting to attend the wedding.
“They just loved the letter,” he said. “It was very heartfelt, and they said, ‘OK, we don’t usually offer special leave for things like this, but since this means so much to you, we’re going to be able to do something for you.'”
Riley’s family then helped him surprise his mother RIGHT before she was about to walk down the aisle. Her reaction? Priceless. Watch the precious moment unfold below.
“Every moment that you have with your family… means something,” Riley said. “I feel for my fellow soldiers who are in Afghanistan or in Iraq who go months or sometimes years without seeing their family. It’s very tough. So it was a big blessing to be able to take a break and be reminded of what I’m fighting for, which is my family.”
Can someone pass us a tissue? Because ALL THE FEELS!