GILL — Nine-year-old Kiera Richardson-Meattey was having a terrible day at school.
She had lost the “Marine Sister” charm that her brother Kyle Meattey had gotten her, and was heartbroken to have lost the memento she used to remember him while he was away on a Marine base in North Carolina.
Richardson-Meattey continued her day at Gill Elementary School, heading to an assembly Friday afternoon. While she and the other students were singing “This Land is Our Land,” she suddenly spotted a familiar figure across the room: her 19-year-old brother, Kyle.
The two hadn’t seen each other since May, when Richardson-Meattey and her family had visited Meattey at his base. Ecstatic, Richardson-Meattey ran across the room, a huge smile on her face and tears in her eyes, and into her brother’s arms.
“She said he made up for (losing her charm) and turned her bad day into a good day,” said Richardson-Meattey’s stepmother Sarah Meattey.
Kyle Meattey returned home on Thursday for the first time since April, having been granted four days leave from the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock, N.C. He surprised each of his four siblings separately on Thursday and Friday, with Sarah and her husband Butch Meattey arranging for him to come to Richardson-Meattey’s school.
“I was like the last person to know,” Richardson-Meattey said.
“It’s awesome to have him home and spend some time with him,” Butch Meattey said. “We didn’t think he’d be able to come home until October, maybe Christmas.”
Until Monday, Kyle Meattey will spend time with his family and celebrate a joint birthday party for multiple family members including Richardson-Meattey, who turns 10 years old on Sept. 22.
“It’s kind of like an early birthday present,” Butch Meattey said. “Kyle coming home is the best present ever.”