"I was like, 'What? They made a mistake.' I can’t believe this,” said Regina Benzing as she called her son's name during a monthly assembly.
This New York elementary school teacher had no idea the person she would call to the stage to be honored at the "Student of the Month" assembly would be her own son, who has been deployed overseas with the U.S. Air Force.
Regina Benzing, a teacher at the Lenox Elementary School in Baldwin, Long Island, was emceeing the monthly assembly when, as she called the names of the first two students, one of the names was that of her son, "Eric Benzing."
"I was like, 'What? They made a mistake.' I can’t believe this," Regina told WCBS.
Eric, who joined the U.S. Air Force about a year ago, has been deployed in Germany since last September, but sure enough, there he was, walking out on stage as his name was called.
As the two emotionally embraced, the crowd burst into cheers and students began waving American flags and signs that read, "Thank you for your service."
"Ecstatic, absolutely ecstatic," Regina said. "It's good to hold my boy. I’ve been waiting for a long time to get to put my arms around him."
"I missed you too," her son added.
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