Cassie Whelan thought she’d be spending her very first Mother’s Day without dad.
Cassie has been parenting solo for much of the past year, ever since her husband Sgt. Josh Sarpu was deployed to Iraq. It was difficult enough for the young wife to say goodbye to her husband, a medevac crew chief for the National Guard, but their situation was made even harder by the fact that Cassie was six months pregnant with their first child when Josh left.
Cassie was excited to see her husband return in May just after Mother’s Day, but her brother and best friend Stephanie Fuschetti secretly made sure that Cassie’s first Mother’s Day would not be spent solo. The two teamed up with Cassie’s mother to nominate her for a special Mother’s Day event on “Good Morning America,” enabling them to surprise her just days away from the big day.