A high school cheerleader was brought to tears of joy when her soldier mom emerged from inside her school's mascot's costume for an emotional reunion. Alissa Guzman, a Chief Warrant Officer with the U.S. Army, shares a close bond with her daughter, Harmonee, 17, but admitted her most-recent deployment to the Middle East was extremely tough. For 22 years, single mom Alissa, originally from San Antonio, Texas, had been on active duty, and so when her children became older, she found it tougher and tougher to be apart from them. Alissa and Harmonee's bond became a lot stronger when they experienced the pandemic overseas, away from friends and family. And so, after four months in the Middle East and planning to retire next year after more than two decades of service, Alissa decided she wanted to do something special for her daughter on her return. She reached out to Harmonee's cheer coach at Woodbridge High School in Virginia, who said she loved the idea of a surprise and said Alissa could hide in the school's Vking costume ahead of the big reveal. Alissa loved the idea, too, and on September 13, she arrived at nearby Gainesville High School, where Woodbridge was the visiting team. Working with Harmonee's two brothers, Alissa met up with staff from Woodbridge and secretly got into the school's mascot costume in the parking lot while Harmonee was away with her cheer team. After posing for a photo with the cheer team on the track, Alissa then moved to the side and removed the mascot's head as an announcement played over the stadium speakers. Harmonee didn't quite fully hear the announcement, but when she turned to the side and spotted her mom coming toward her, she immediately burst into tears and headed over for a long-awaited hug.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:0017-year-old Harmony has never known a life without her mama Lisa in the army.
00:09I didn't start out as the typical soldier. Being a single parent, not having a lot of options given
00:15the situation, I decided to enlist. Harmony was later born in Japan where Lisa got stationed
00:22and being a military child hasn't always been easy. It's kind of hard being an outsider when
00:30any of your friends say, oh I've known her since sixth grade, oh we've been like friends since we
00:35were babies. So you really got to rely entirely on your family. But relying on her mom became a
00:42little tougher after her parents separated. He was awarded physical custody of Harmony.
00:48The court had determined that I was a great soldier but I was kind of a
00:54not perfect mother because I chose to stay in the army. There's a different
01:01emotional connection that you have with your mom than you do with your dad.
01:09Basically she loves me and she missed me so much. That's what she's trying to say and it's hard
01:16being away from mom. So I decided to take a hardship tour, come back and I took a more stable job and
01:23I spent the next two years in court fighting for custody back. Every day is a gift to us because
01:30at any point you know I can be called away. So later on when she was called away for a four
01:37month deployment in the Middle East, she knew she wanted to plan a homecoming surprise.
01:43Now that I'm going into my 21, my 21st year, knowing that I'm going to retire and this
01:49probably being my last appointment, you know we wanted to make it a little bit more special for
01:53Harmony. Harmony better know how much I love her. And what's better than a special guest mascot
02:00at her game? At least that's what she thought at first. Oh god I can't see anything in here.
02:07It is hot, it's muggy.
02:10I couldn't see anything. The head was like bobbling every time I would move, the head would move and then
02:19they had this, they had this idea like oh you need to go out there and do mascot things.
02:26Number one, I don't do mascot things. I am about to faint because it was so hot. I was sweating
02:33and finally the the announcement came on and I removed the head and I could breathe. That was
02:40like the first thing that I was thrilled about is being able to breathe. I was just
02:44laughing because I didn't know what was going on but I just heard Guzman and I said wait what?
02:54I just completely blacked out. And you know I'm crying, she's crying, everybody's crying.
03:04And it was just a magical moment.
03:25The weight lifted off my shoulders. We were both crying, tears running down my face.
03:31Day plays over and over in my head.
03:43When we hugged it's just, it's like a circle that just completes itself,
03:48right? Like in that moment my heart was whole.
03:52And Elisa told us the moment she saw Harmony she never wanted to leave again.
03:58You can kind of just let out a breath, like a sigh of relief, like
04:03okay I'm home, everything's gonna be okay, mama's back. But she said it's the people
04:11that call her mama that are her heroes worth celebrating. Harmony, like her name suggests,
04:21you know she is just, she is definitely the music in my life. Because for over two decades her kids
04:33have been there through her drill sergeant days, jumping out of airplanes days, and especially
04:38through her deployment days. Welcome home! I'm so grateful that you understand what it takes
04:50to be able to do what it is that I do, to be able to support you guys.
04:53And having your support, having your love, means everything to me. She puts herself on the line
04:59every day so we could have everything that we could want. And although I might not say it
05:09every day or as much as I should, but I'm super, super grateful. And I thank her and love her so
05:18much because of all that she can do for us and all that she loves us for.
05:24I just couldn't ask for anything better. She's everything that I want.