Rancho Bernardo High ceremony is bittersweet for grads

For at least two Rancho Bernardo High 2016 graduates, their commencement ceremony was bittersweet due to joy overshadowed by the physical absence of beloved family members.

For Valedictorian Kevin Hu, it was the absence of his deceased brother, who five years earlier almost stood at the podium as he was doing Thursday.

For senior Camille Morris, part of her heart was across the world in Kuwait where her soldier father was deployed — or so she thought.

Hu said that when giving his commencement speech he was not only speaking for himself, but for his brother, David, who had been in line to become Rancho Bernardo High’s Class of 2012 valedictorian and attend MIT, but died suddenly at home in January 2012 at age 17. Kevin, who was 13 at the time, found his brother in their Rancho Bernardo home.

“When presenting this speech, I come back to someone who was part of my life — someone who is no longer here,” Hu said. “Here on this Earth, I mean, he is up there.

“As his friends call it — physics utopia. I’m sure he’s much, much happier there. Pretty sure there’s an MIT there as well.

“And I’d just like to say to him, my brother, that I’m here, standing here giving a speech at high school graduation. I made it — for the both of us. And I’m sure we’ll meet again, but not yet.”

After the ceremony, Hu said he believes his older brother was there in spirit and that David influenced him.

“Throughout his high school years I was in middle school,” Hu said. “He would teach me things, like how to prepare for classes and tell me how high school was and what I was supposed to do. (But his advice included) that I cannot continually sit alone all the time, that I needed to hang out (with others). Things that I will never forget.”

For Morris, the ceremony took on a surprising twist when her father, Army Master Sgt. Derrick Morris, walked out onto the field. As far as his daughter knew, he was still on his more than year-long deployment to Kuwait, until RB High Principal Dave LeMaster announced that Master Sgt. Morris was making a brief visit so he could witness his daughter’s graduation in person.

“It was breathtaking and so surreal,” Camille Morris said when interviewed by 10News, which was among several television stations present to cover the surprise.

“That was a whole year of emotions exploded at once, so it’s unbeatable,” her father said. He said the surprise took nine months of planning.

Both called it among the best moments in their lives.