Soldier surprises FAU grad wife
Selena Gomes thought her Army paratrooper husband was miles away in Germany and would miss her graduation. It was her big moment: She’s the first college grad in her family. But as the 21-year-old stood before the crowd Friday at Florida Atlantic University, President John Kelly stopped the ceremony. Gomes figured it was a brief pause, but then Kelly announced, “We have a big surprise.”
Gomes was stunned when Pvt. J.P. Gomes appeared. She teared up and walked toward him. Her husband, in camouflage fatigues and maroon beret, hugged her.
She smiled big. The happy couple took a picture with Kelly.
“I’ll always remember this moment,” she said after receiving her bachelor’s degree in political science. “I never cried on stage before.”
Gomes’ husband, 20, told her he was going to miss her graduation, saying he was “going on a big operation with my unit. She fell for it.”
She thought he would instead arrive at her family’s Deerfield Beach home tonight. “I thought he was in the woods doing Army things,” she said.
The couple married in March, on a Friday. Two days later, J.P. was deployed with a reconnaissance team
from the First Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment.
Gomes is awaiting orders from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Graf, Germany. He plans to bring his wife with him.
“I’m here for 20 days, and I’m working on bringing her over,” he said.
His wife had “Next stop, Germany” on her mortarboard.
That’s how FAU staff and her mom, sister and grandmother knew where she was sitting in the 2,500-seat Carole and Barry Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium in Boca Raton.
Gomes arranged the surprise. Gomes’ sister, Maribell Cruz, and her toddler, Kai Bradley, watched the big reveal on the Jumbotrons.
“I’m proud he took the initiative,” her mother, Aurea Cruz, said. “She was upset he wasn’t going to be there and the hardest part was keeping the secret. We had to hide him overnight in a hotel room.”
The graduation was one of five ceremonies on FAU’s Boca Raton campus Thursday and Friday. With 2,790 degrees conferred, this was the largest fall class in the university’s 53-year history, Kelly said before taking a selfie with the graduates.
After the ceremony, Selena Gomes described how surprised she was to see her husband. He said, “She’s my wife. She’s the one I want to spend the rest of my life with.
“I’m trying to show her I love her.”