A mother-to-be whose soldier husband died during her pregnancy staged an incredibly touching gender reveal for his grieving comrades.
Britt Harris, 26, of Southern Pines, North Carolina, is expecting her first child with the late Specialist Christopher Harris, who died aged 25 in August along with another soldier, Sergeant Jonathon Michael Hunter, when a car bomb detonated near their convoy in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Christopher’s death occurred just one week after Britt broke the news of the pregnancy to him.
Fallen soldier: Britt Harris (left), of Southern Pines, North Carolina, is expecting her first child with the late Specialist Christopher Harris (right), who died aged 25 in August
Touching: After her husband’s death, Britt worried about Christopher’s comrades, so she made sure they were the first to learn the gender of her future child by staging a reveal (pictured)
‘When I told him, it was the happiest I’d ever seen him,’ Britt told ABC News. ‘He was so excited.’
After her husband’s death, Britt worried about Christopher’s comrades, whom he considered family and referred to as his ‘brothers’.
‘I’m dealing with a lot and grieving but I got to take off work and go to counseling, but they didn’t get to. I didn’t want them to be forgotten over there,’ she added.
In order to make the soldiers feel like they were still close to her family, Britt had the idea of making sure they would be the first to know the gender of the baby.
‘I asked if they’d like to be the first to know the gender and they were really excited,’ she added. ‘I told them I would ship confetti poppers or something and they could be the first to know and feel included.’
It’s a girl! Christopher’s comrades recorded the moment they opened the poppers and got showered with pink confetti, thus learning that Britt is expecting a girl
Homage: Vice President Mike Pence attended a ceremony for Sgt. Jonathon Michael Hunter and Spc. Christopher Michael Harris, Britt’s husband, in August in Dover, Delaware
The mother-to-be then shipped poppers filled with confetti for Christopher’s fellow soldiers to open and find out the baby’s gender.
Christopher’s comrades recorded the moment they opened the poppers and got showered with pink confetti, thus learning that Britt is expecting a girl.
‘So, my boy Harris, you know we’re going to do it for him,’ one f them says at the beginning of the video, ‘We’re going to see what kind of baby he’s going to have. I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, a zebra or a unicorn, but we’re going to find out.’
Britt then shared the clip on Facebook and said it had left her crying and smiling at the same time.
She now plans to name her future daughter Christian Michelle Harris as a tribute to her late husband, whose full name was Christopher Michael Harris.