Hazel Dell Elementary School’s Veterans Day assembly not only honored armed and retired solders but included a surprise reunion of one of its students and her U.S. Navy mother on Nov. 11.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Laura Endicott took a day of liberty from the U.S.S Battan to see her daughter, Leah Dunlap, 9.

“It was the best feeling I’ve had since I’ve left,” Endicott said. “The only thing that could have been better is if she was on the pier (when the ship docked. It’s hard seeing all the families.”

The two were reunited at the assembly and came as a shock to Dunlap, who along with the school first heard about a special guest before seeing her mother walk out onto the stage.

“I was, like, ‘Oh my gosh! Who are they talking about?’,” Dunlap said. “I didn’t know if they were actually going to be talking about her. I was just wondering who they were talking about and I didn’t know who it was going to be until she showed up.”

“I was nervous and scared. I knew I was going to cry,” Endicott said. “It’s really great to see her.”

Endicott has been deployed at sea for the past five months.

“It’s not an easy thing,” she said. “We talk through email and I see pictures posted. It’s hard to see your friends with their kids.”

Endicott said the hardest part of being apart from Leah is not seeing her on a daily basis.

“I have pictures where I sleep, where I work and on my computer, and I live vicariously through my parents. They put pictures up and take her to gymnastics – they get to see all that that I don’t,” she said.

Unfortunately the reunion was short lived as Endicott had to return to Norfolk, Va. on Nov. 12. The two said they planned to spend the day doing things together like playing video games and talking.

“We’ll probably just lay around and be lazy,” Endicott said. “I’ll see her again on Thanksgiving.”

Endicott said she will be deployed again in December.