This week, Ellen DeGeneres gave Atlanta Public Schools police officer L.J. Williamson another surprise.
That’s on top of the viral moment last month when Williamson’s son Shakir Aquil, an Army specialist, shocked her with a long-awaited reunion at Therrell High School.
Aquil, 22, had been deployed for two years when he returned in grand fashion to surprise his mom at work.
The mother-son duo went on DeGeneres’ show this week to talk about the emotional homecoming.
At the top of the show, DeGeneres said the viral video is one of the things she loves to highlight.
“We love celebrating military families,” DeGeneres said on her show Monday.
While her son was deployed, she poured all her motherly energy into caring for her students at Therrell, Williamson told Ellen.
“In a way, they were my therapy. I took all the energy from missing Shakir and I just poured it into them,” she said on the show. “I gave them love, I gave them a listening ear if they needed that.”
Ellen then showed a video of tributes from some of the students describing what Williamson means to them.
“We all love her,” one student, Sharell says in the video.
“She’s the mother of our school and she’s always making sure that we’re good,” another student, Nino said in the video.
At the end of the segment, DeGeneres gave Williamson (and Aquil) another surprise. Since Aquil is in the Army, he can’t receive gifts, but Williamson opened two boxes: One contained $30,000 to help the school officer pay off her debt.
Another box contained the keys to a new Hyundai Sonata.
Williamson screamed with joy at both of the gifts.
“Thank you for everything you’re doing for us,” DeGeneres told the duo.
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