Published July 9, 2020

SENIOR AIRMAN Anthony Arroyo waits patiently at his wife’s work station at Salon 77 to surprise her upon his earlier than expected homecoming Tuesday afternoon. (Maureen Doherty Photo)

By MAUREEN DOHERTY

NORTH READING — There is nothing more sweet than a surprise homecoming between newlyweds, especially when they’ve been separated by a deployment that had taken one spouse half way around world for nine months.

Enter U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Anthony Arroyo who wanted to make his homecoming special for his wife, Taylor. She works as a hair stylist at Salon 77 on Main Street. After having his homecoming delayed several times over the past few months during the coronavirus pandemic, Anthony reached out to his wife’s friends and salon owner Leah McCann. He knew that Leah and her close-knit staff would be up for the challenge of helping to plan a fun homecoming while keeping this secret from Taylor.

Together, they came up with a plan that included having a friend of Taylor’s make an appointment to have her hair colored. When Taylor left her work station to mix the color in the salon’s back room, Anthony would take her place in the chair and wait for his wife to emerge.

On Tuesday afternoon, Taylor had no way of knowing that Anthony had been patiently waiting in another office next door to the salon while she had cut and styled another client’s hair earlier. To her, it was simply another shift working in a profession she loves and which she was happy to return to once the salon re-opened a month ago under Gov. Baker’s phased re-opening plan for businesses due to COVID-19.

In those few minutes while Taylor was in the back room, her co-workers and Leah transformed her work station with a huge bouquet of red, white and blue balloons, a vase of fresh cut flowers, and two glasses of the couple’s favorite wine. Then everyone waited, with their cameras poised to capture the moment.

HAPPINESS IS… hugging the love of your life. Taylor and Anthony Arroyo embrace for the first time in nine long months.(Maureen Doherty Photo)

After what seemed to be eternity but in reality was less than 10 minutes, Taylor emerged to discover she was standing just 20 feet away from her husband. She was so shocked that she surprised everyone by turning around and going back into the work room to gather her thoughts. She re-emerged to the cheers and encouragement of everyone gathered in the salon, then she simply hugged her husband for a long time as they savored the moment.

With everyone gathered around the couple, Leah offered a toast: “To Taylor and Anthony, starting their life anew after a long nine months!”

Asked later what had gone through her mind once she realized it was really was her husband sitting at her work station after nine months of separation, Taylor said, “I wanted to make sure that I was awake! Nine months is way too long!”

Anthony replied, “So let’s never do that again!”

It was not supposed to be a nine-month deployment. Originally, he was supposed to be home several months ago. But COVID-19 disrupted the schedules.

He had deployed on October 5 and their first anniversary was October 27.

“So we missed our anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas, my birthday, her birthday, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, the dog, the truck, the house, her new job. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, literally. This is the best way that I can make it up to her!” he said.

THE ARROYOS were just a few weeks shy of their first wedding anniversary when Anthony was deployed to Afghanistan last October. (Maureen Doherty Photo)

“I was a Guardian Angel. We worked hand-in-hand with the Afghan National Army and we protected their aircraft while they conducted a lot of combat missions,” he said. Sadly, they would often return with body bags, “so we had to make sure their helicopters were secure on the ground. We went outside the wire. We flew on top of the mountains and over the city of Kandahar,” he recalled.

On these missions, he was situated in the back of the helicopter, and downplayed his role. “I was working with the pilot. I really didn’t do much except for sight-see. It was a fun mission; I’m going to miss it,” he said.

“You missed being home more, I hope!” Taylor said.

 Asked how it feels to be home Anthony, “It feels so good. I can’t even come up with words because I had no idea when we were coming home.” Taylor had resigned herself to the fact that he would not be coming home until the end of July.

“I’m just in pure shock,” she said.

But the celebration was just beginning. A few minutes later, North Reading’s firefighters on duty Tuesday afternoon arrived in Engine 3 and the ambulance. Capt. Eric Pepper and firefighters Tom Harris, Adam Salemme and James Caseletto, as well as North Reading police officer John Raso, offered their thanks to Anthony for his service to the country, posed for a few photos and provided a mini-escort through town to send the couple on their way to the new home that Anthony had not yet seen. The couple purchased it in March during his deployment.

“I’m going to take him to the house that we bought! He was gone in March, so he has not even seen it, and it’s under construction. And we got a dog. I will try to re-introduce him to life!” Taylor said.