Doctor Walks into Room To See Patient, Finds Army Husband Waiting for Her Instead
Military spouses suffer in a very particular way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to minimize the plight of the men and women who risk their lives while wearing the uniform.
Their pain, though, is an active thing, facing concrete challenges that they must surmount. Their spouses have to play the waiting game, staving off fear hour after lonely hour.
Perhaps that’s why we love seeing reunions of military members and their spouses. In those moments, the travails of both people have come to an end and there’s only happiness.
The whole experience is only better when once spouse plans a ringer of surprise for the other. Just consider what Army National Guard Sgt. Bryan Samsel cooked up for his wife, Shannon, back in March.
Inside Edition reported that Shannon, who lives in Missouri, was a big fan of the Dolly Parton Stampede, a dinner show in Branson, Missouri. Bryan arranged for his sister to take her there, ostensibly as a birthday gift.
“I just wanted to do something special for her,” he explained. “I expect her to cry, maybe beat me up.”
Instead, he got a short snippet of invective and a humongous hug. After the show’s entertainers had brought Shannon into the middle of the ring and Bryan had appeared, she yelled, “I hate you!” before engulfing him in her arms.
Joshua Splinter, who is a doctor with the Texas Army National Guard reserve, planned an even more striking shock for his wife, Alice. See, they’re both doctors, him a military one and her a pediatrician.
So he planned a trick a doctor would truly appreciate. First, he acted as though he was still deployed to the Port of Africa where he’d spent the past five months.
“I’m talking to her on the phone and I’m having to say, ‘Alright, I have to go to bed,’ but really it’s the same time. Otherwise, this is all gonna give it away,” he told Inside Edition.
Then he hunkered down in an examination room in her office. Little did Alice know her next patient was her husband.
She opened the door. There he was in his fatigues.
“It took a second for me to take it in,” Alice said. “I honestly almost passed out.
“My knees got a little weak, but I was so happy to see him I just tried to hug him and stand there and take in the moment.” Enjoy it, Alice, and thank you for letting us have a little glimpse of it.
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