The best surprise family reunions

FOR families separated by thousands of kilometres, there’s nothing better than rocking up unannounced for a surprise reunion.

CHRIS Stephenson hadn’t seen his family in more than three years, after moving to Sydney’s Surry Hills from Newcastle, England.

When he suddenly turned up at a restaurant in a surprise Christmas visit home, arranged with help from his sister (and filmed by her), his Aunty Lou leapt up and went wild in the background (“He’s come all the way from Australia!”). But in the foreground, a static, silent woman cups her hands to her mouth in utter shock. It’s his mum, Joan.

“For a good few seconds she just plain refused to believe it was me,” he says. “Everyone was immediately ‘Oh my God, Chris is here’ but it was like mum wouldn’t believe it ’til she could touch me and physically feel I was there.”

Mr Stephenson, 40, is one of a number of international expats who’ve filmed their surprise trip home, providing some of the most tear-jerking and life-affirming footage you’re likely to see this festive season.

“Christmas is such a special family-based time. I knew how much more special it’d be for the family, and myself, if I was there. I remember no anxiety at all ... just an overwhelming need to be there with them,” he says.

Normality resumed shortly after the shock. “After the filming, there was a lot of talk about how it was organised etc. But also lots of worrying there wasn’t enough food in the house. (Ridiculous: if 10 of us had turned up there’d still be enough Christmas food in our house.) I also remember how quickly everything settled down back to normal. Families are like that I think ... like a lake, you can throw a pebble into the water but after not too long the ripples fade and calm is restored.”

“SHE JUST SCREAMED, HUGGED ME AND DIDN’T LET GO”

Brisbane’s Samantha Borland-Smith, 24, hadn’t seen her best friend Kirsty Stevens in over 18 months, since moving to London.

Friends from high school, the two share a special bond. “Our friendship has got stronger each year. She’s such a big part of my life, even though we live thousands of kilometres apart,” Ms Borland-Smith says.

In the video, she can be heard saying, “I came to meet Charlotte, can I see her?” but her friend won’t let her go. “It was a really special moment for us because I left just a few weeks after Kirsty’s wedding, and in my time away she’d fallen pregnant,” Ms Borland-Smith says. “It was so hard being away from her during such a life-changing situation. When I finally did get to meet her daughter Charlotte, she was already 8 months old!

“Kirsty was so surprised, she called her mum who came right over to greet me as well. It was such a lovely welcome home after being so homesick.”

“IT SAYS HANDLE WITH CARE …”

Anthony Van Assche, 42, wanted to surprise younger brother Alex for his 40th birthday earlier this month. Mr Van Assche, who lives in Sydney’s Surry Hills, travelled back to Brussels where his brother had already planned his birthday party. Little did Alex know he was about to receive a very large present that said “handle with care ...”.

“I only planned it six days before and I only told my brother’s wife,” Mr Van Assche says. “Her response was, ‘Thank God it’s only six days — I couldn’t keep this a secret any longer!’”

The reaction was touching: “That’s my aunty having a seizure in the background you can hear! And I could hear others just asking, ‘What the f**k’ as I jumped out of this giant parcel.”

Then, amid the whooping and swearing, Mr Van Assche looked across the room to see something altogether more tender. It was his mum: “Her lower lip was quivering. She looked like she was about to faint!”

His older brother’s wife summed up the impact of the surprise. “She said she’d only ever seen him cry twice in his whole life. This was one.”

Anthony Van Assche jumped out of a box to surprise his brother (see the video above for the perfect reunion moment)

Melissa Hills’s mum couldn’t believe it when her daughter walked in (see video above)

“IS IT REALLY YOU?”

After four months of planning, Melissa Hills’ surprise visit home for her 30th birthday was nearly over before it started: “I had to change my Facebook settings — people kept writing about how they were looking forward to seeing me. The game was nearly given away a few times.”

Then she was late to her own surprise: “I’d planned to arrive at Pizza Express in Bexleyheath Kent — our family’s favourite restaurant — in time for the start of dinner but ended up arriving as they were paying the bill. My siblings all got their phones out and started filming from every angle — mum had no idea what was going on. When I walked in she thought she’d seen a ghost and had to check that I was really there!” she says.

“I hadn’t seen mum for eight months — since my wedding the Christmas before,” says Ms Hills, who now lives in Redfern. “I was very jet-lagged but as we got nearer the restaurant I felt sick with excitement.

“In this day and age it was lovely to keep something so special secret for so long!”