That old rule they say applies to baseball just might hold true if you’re a kid whose dad gets deployed to war zones for a living, too.
Especially if you’re Arianna Barclay.
“Yeah, she’s pretty tough,” Jason Barclay said of his daughter.
“She may not cry today. And she’s been through this before.”
Those deployments, he means.
Jason, who enlisted right after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, is now a sergeant major in the Pennsylvania National Guard.
His unit just got back from a yearlong deployment in East Africa, in fact, where it provided critical security forces for a region beset by the ripples of conflict and war.
Everybody knew about the homecoming.
Well, almost, everybody.
“Arianna knew her dad was coming home sometime this week,” reports her mom, Lacey Mechtel, who also wore sergeant’s stripes during her time in the Army.
“She just didn’t know exactly when.”
What better place for a reunion, the couple reasoned, than at Arianna’s school, Mountaineer Middle?
After all, the school perched high atop Price Street is where the sixth grader soars as a straight-A student. She also just made the cheerleading squad – aided, her mom said, by the fact Arianna’s a gymnast, too. In fact, she’s already introduced a couple of crowd-pleasing tumbling runs to the routine.
Meanwhile, at Mountaineer Middle, a certain sergeant major kept his boots planted on the floor in an out-of-the-way office, as classes gathered in the cafeteria for lunch.
With the surprise reunion set, Vice Principal Jennifer Potts also wanted to make the proceedings a teachable moment, given that Veterans Day is Monday.
So, while students were seated at their tables for lunch, another table was close by.
And, conspicuously empty.
It was the “Missing Man Table,” symbolizing the sacrifice of those soldiers killed or missing in action.
Potts softened the lesson, just a bit.
“Today, we just want to think about those who are away and can’t be with us.”
Then a kid who doesn’t cry – did.
Arianna brushed tears. After all, her dad was one of them.
Or so she thought.
A sergeant major emerged from a door behind his daughter and put his hand on her shoulder.
“Hey.”
“Whoa!”
They hugged – for a long time.
“You didn’t tell me you were here,” she said, mock-scolding him.
“I know,” he replied in mock-earnestness. “That’s why it was a surprise.”
Arianna finished her lunch with gusto and proudly introduced her dad to everyone at the table.
Gabby McIntyre, right, shares in the joyful reunion between Arianna Barclay, center, and her father, Jason Barclay.
