Soldier gives sister a Christmas surprise

All she wanted for Christmas was to meet her older brother, and Taylorsville High student Ashley Johnson got her wish.

After six years of searching for the brother she lost when their parents divorced, Ashley and John Johnson were reunited on Dec. 19 when he made a surprise visit to her band class.

"There's no words to describe it," Ashley said. "You dream about what it's going to be like, then suddenly it's there and it's even better than you imagine.”

The last time they saw each other, John was in third grade and Ashley was only a year old. After their parents divorced, they lived in different states with no contact between them.

"She had been wanting to find out where he was, but I could not get any information out of his family in Oklahoma," their mother, Terry Johnson, said.

Ashley did know that John is in the military. When she heard a Veteran's Day tribute on the radio in 2010, she broke down and cried, saying that she had a right to know where her brother was, Terry said. That moment emboldened Ashley to ask John's family one more time how to contact him. It paid off--his grandmother gave her an email address. She also learned that he was in the Air Force, and stationed in Germany.

After emailing and chatting on Facebook for a while, John told her that he would try to come visit for Christmas, but did not tell her when specifically, or even if he could come for sure, Ashley said.

However, John had planned the trip a month in advance, Terry said. She found out the week before he came, and conspired with Ashley's principal and band teacher to give her a wonderful Christmas surprise.

As Ashley practiced a patriotic song on her trombone in band class on one otherwise normal Monday, John stepped into the classroom in full uniform.

"She turned around and saw him standing there, and dropped the trombone," Terry said.

Ashley jumped on her brother, and they held each other and cried for a long time.

The two spent about a month together before John had to return to his post in Germany. He took her shopping and ice skating, and many other things they had missed doing together during their childhood, Terry said.

"Normally I don't like surprises, but I did like this one," Ashley said.