Local 5-Year-Old Gets Surprise Holiday Visit From Older Brother on Army Leave

SMITHTOWN, NY - One Tackan Elementary School student got a special surprise just in time for the holidays when his big brother surprised him at his school's festival last week.

Nesconset resident, 5-year-old Leo Medina was enjoying his time at the event on Thursday when his brother,

18-year-old Justin Purnell, a 2016 Smithtown East graduate who’s in the army and has been stationed at For Benning for the past 10 weeks, showed up to surprise him.

“It took Leo like a second to realize who it was,” 42-year-old Nesconst resident and mother of the two boys, Nicole Medina, told Newsday. "To see his jaw drop and see him run — it just lights you all up inside."

Despite their 13 year age difference, the two boys are close and Medina's departure "hit him hard," according to the Newsday report.

In addition to his little brother, Medina surprised his girlfriend, 18-year-old Smithtown resident Kim Lawless and his grandmothers Smithtown resident Roberta Kosiorowski and Norma Pendleton of West Orange, New Jersey.

Photo: Twitter.com/Tackan Elementary School