HUNTINGTON, TX (KTRE) -
Laura Dempsey spent Friday with family
decorating for her wedding.
Dempsey hasn't seen her son Phillip
for a year and a half but that all changed on the eve of her wedding "He
has already told me he wasn't going to be here," said Dempsey.
Her son Phillip Thomas came home for
the holidays on Thursday, he serves in the Navy on the USS Fitzgerald in Japan.
Thomas says his mom wasn't expecting
him home until January.
"They allowed those of us who had
scheduled to go home during this period to go home even though we had a shorter
time," said Thomas.
"I'm ok with that, I get to see
him," said Dempsey.
Sherry Rawls helped her oldest
grandson pull off the surprise.
Rawls says having him here will make
her daughter's wedding day complete and the holiday season a little brighter.
"She's just glad to have her kids
around and it's kind of sad to not have him here," said Rawls.
Dempsey describes holidays without her
son as lonely and she plans to make the most of the time she has to spend with
him.
"We won't have a lot of time but
we're going to have Christmas dinner on the 25th like we always do and he'll
get to be here," said Dempsey.
Thomas says a change of pace will be
nice for a few days and quality time with family is the perfect Christmas gift.
"It's really high tempo where I'm
stationed and this is going to take away a lot of stress," said Thomas. And
give him and his family a Christmas they'll remember for a lifetime.
Thomas will spend Christmas with his family and the
return to Japan on the 26th.
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