Nick Miller had only 24 hours to spend with his family. His wife, Melissa, wanted to make the short stay memorable.

A Washington pizza restaurant helped make it unforgettable.

Nick and Melissa met when he was stationed at Fort Lewis from 2003-05. His unit from the Missouri National Guard was filling in for the 170th Military Police Company, which was in Iraq. She worked as a gate guard at the post. Some of their first dates were at the Farrelli’s Pizza restaurant in DuPont. The two liked the wood-fired pies and fell in love with each other.

The couple and their two kids live in Linneus, Mo., now. Nick’s unit is preparing to deploy to Kosovo. It trained during February and March at Camp Crowder outside Neosho, Mo., and the Guardsmen had 24 hours of leave before deploying on March 23 – Easter Sunday.

Melissa’s plan to make the short leave memorable began weeks before that. She called Farrelli’s in DuPont and asked if they shipped pizzas.

“I was more than willing to pay for the pizza and the shipping and all that,” she said. “I figured we’d be eating a $75 pizza. But I would do that for my husband.”

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There was one problem: Farrelli’s didn’t send pizzas cross-country. But after Melissa told the manager her story over the phone, he told her he’d see what he could do.

A week later, the manager called back with good news: He, a cook and a few others had brainstormed the proper ways to freeze and pack the pizza and tinkering with the directions to properly cook it in a conventional oven. They could send it in time for Nick’s leave.

The manager then told her they would ship the pizza for free. Melissa was floored.

“It’s something we’re happy to do for somebody who’s getting deployed,” she remembers the manager saying.

She and the kids drove to Columbia, Mo., to attend a send-off photo for the deploying Guardsmen on Saturday. The package from Farrelli’s arrived the day before – complete with pizza, a cooking pan and some T-shirts. On the drive back to Linneus, she kept thinking about it.

The next day, the family shared a memorable – if unconventional – Easter meal.

“When he found out Farrelli’s did it all for free, he couldn’t believe it,” she said. “It really, really touched him. He couldn’t believe somebody would do that for just one guy.

“And,” she added, “the pizza turned out pretty dang good.”