JENKS, Okla. — When Ms. Eason’s Jenks 1st grade students walked into the library, they patiently waited for their mystery reader.
One of the students, Katy Clayton, is used to waiting. She has been waiting for her dad to come home from his deployment with the Navy.
Her wait ended on Sept. 20. Her dad, Petty Officer Dayelan Clayton, was the mystery reader for the class.
Katy couldn’t hold back the tears, “because I missed him,” she said.
Dayelan read a book to Katy's class, and still, Katy patiently waited for that alone time with Dad.
“I never got to see her that often,” Dayelan said, “So whenever I did see her, it always felt like I was at the hospital again, holding her for the first time.”
Dayelan spent four years in Japan before transferring to Norfolk, Virginia.
He’s missed all of Katy's birthdays except her first, as well as Christmases, Thanksgivings, and countless other moments.
However, on Katy's birthday, there’s just one thing she wants to do.
“Get ice cream,” She told her dad.
He told her that would be no problem.
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