Wesley’s Week (April 2-8, 2007)

by Wesley

Of all the videos I have watched online over the last few years (and I have seen plenty of them, I will admit), none has touched me on such a visceral level as the one last week showing a 6-year-old boy in Seattle named Jonathan Hawes being surprised in class by the return of his father, Navy Ensign Bill Hawes. The senior Hawes had been serving in Iraq for seven months, and his son had no idea his daddy was coming home. What resulted from when Jonathan first saw Bill wearing his fatigues was a beautiful spontaneous leap from his classroom chair to dash directly to his father while weeping with joy and telling him how much he had missed him while his father held him in his arms. The boy managed to compose himself and proudly tell the rest of the class that this was his father who came home from the war unexpectedly, and the class ate cupcakes to celebrate the event.

The video appeared first on Today on NBC last week, and after seeing it I knew I wanted to see the segment again, and I have done so several times. You can link to the video here, but be prepared, it will make the tears flow, no matter what your age, sex, creed or color.

Why did this segment strike such a chord with me and apparently many other viewers? I mean, really, it should not do so for me at least, for a number of reasons. Seattle is about as far away from the Triangle as you can get in the continental United States, and I have no relatives or friends there, so that did not impact my judgment. As for relatives or friends serving in Iraq or overseas, well, we did send a care package to the boyfriend of our beloved intern Kristi before Christmas, but other than that, I barely know personally anyone serving in the war.

I have no children, so I should not be able to relate to the clip that way. And I have had a few cousins serve in the Navy during peacetime, but that is my extent of involvement with that branch of the armed forces. In short, given my circumstances, there is no apparent reason why this news story resonated with me.

And yet this little piece, no more than 90 seconds, touched me even more than all the homecoming scenes I have witnessed, both in real life and in screen classics such as The Best Years of Our Lives. As far as I can tell, it just reminded me of the effects of war on the lives of families, especially on children, but more importantly, young Mr. Hawes offered the most genuine, honest, natural expression of happiness I have witnessed from one human being to another. In this day and age, that is truly refreshing and cuts straight to your heart.

How did Mr. Hawes not manage to cry during the reunion, I do not know. Maybe he was just trained not to be emotional, or just made of sterner stuff than I am. In any event, I am glad his son did shed some tears, and that he had the event recorded for posterity, so that he can look back some day and be proud he touched so many people simply by being himself.

God bless Jonathan, Bill and the rest of the Hawes family, and here’s hoping that the rest of our fighting forces will return home with the same love and joy shown by their families and friends.

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