NAUGATUCK -- Imagine this for a moment: You're a young child who has a hero. Your hero happens to be your older brother, a U.S. Navy sailor who has been stationed on the other side of the country for more than two years.
You want so badly to be like this older brother, so you wear out your replica Navy fatigues and you try to do the right thing every day, like a good soldier would.
You sometimes daydream in school, wondering about the next time you will see him, until one day the principal walks in to your classroom. She says she is going to read to the class, but then decides it's better to invite in a guest speaker. She goes outside and comes back with none other than your hero, your older brother, who you didn't even know was coming home.
That is how the scene played out Tuesday at Naugatuck's Maple Hill Elementary School, when second-grader Connor Jack was surprised by his older brother, Petty Officer Nicholas Retkowski, 21.
When Principal Cheryl Kane walked into the room Tuesday, Connor's eyes turned as wide as quarters as he stared in disbelief. Finally, he said, "Hi Nick!" before embracing him with a hug.
"I couldn't even breathe," Connor said of the experience. "I thought I was going to pass out!"
Retkowski's mother, Elizabeth Jack, decided to keep Nicholas Retkowski's homecoming a surprise from her two younger sons, Connor, 7, and Dawson, 5.
"We surprised the little one at the airport today," Elizabeth Jack said. "They have been begging him to come home. Every time they talk to him they ask if he can come home. They tell him to ask his boss. And then they go raid their piggy banks" to raise money for his trip to Connecticut.
On Tuesday, it didn't cost Connor anything to have his big brother at school, just a few dozen hugs, which he didn't mind giving. Nicholas Retkowski didn't mind getting them, either.
He, too, counts the days until he can come home. He knows nearly to the minute how many days he has been stationed on the S.S. San Diego.
"I've been gone for two years, one month and five days," he said, adding that he is on leave now for 12 days. "Coming home is a great feeling."
Editor's Note: I added some photos, which bumped the video off of the homepage. But it's still here; just click on the thumbnail with the "play" button.
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