In his daily life of being a police officer, Justin Frye likely sees many things that remind him of his days serving in the military. Recently, he was going through some old photos when he saw something from 24 years ago that left him stunned.

Back in 1994, Justin was shipped off to Bosnia as a Canadian soldier sent there by the United Nations. Justin ended up in the city of Visoko, where he was tasked with providing security for UN helicopters that landed at the military base.

It was during his time working there that Justin met a 10-year-old refugee named Amir Bajramovic. Though they were separated by a barb wire fence, the two began an unlikely friendship. Coming from a small neighboring village, Amir was fascinated by all of the military activity that was happening on Justin’s side of the fence.

“So I found myself gravitating toward Amir and looking forward to spending time with him,” Justin recalled. “When you see the children, there is a personal side to the conflict there. I felt bad for them and I knew they didn’t have a lot of things, so I started to bring candies for Amir. And soon he started to recognize me.”

Justin ended up asking his mother to mail him some items from home that he could give to the boy as a gift.

“Amir did not speak English but the excitement was obvious by his big smile and the look in his eyes,” he recounted.

Amir was overjoyed when Justin gave him pencils, crayons, and even a blue Timex Indiglo watch!

Justin never forgot the little boy, and a photo he had once taken with him recently popped up on his computer as a screensaver. Taking this as a sign, Justin decided that he wanted to find Amir, and he found someone in Bosnia who was willing to help him.

Reporter Senad Hajilovac helped him with this endeavor, and it only took him a few hours to find the boy. He found Amir’s sister, who was still living in the area, and she handed over Amir’s contact information. Justin sent him a Facebook message of the old photo of them along with the caption, “Visoko,” which means “hello.”

He quickly learned that the little boy he had befriended long ago is now a 34 year-old man living in Sweden with his wife and baby girl!

“It was a wonderful feeling and it was a feeling that I’ve been looking forward to experiencing for 24 years now. I am very pleased to have added my newest facebook friend Amir Bajramovic today,” Justin said.

“We’ve spoken about reuniting and I assured him this time that we’ll be standing on the same side of the fence,” Justin concluded, adding,  “Sometimes it is the small things.”

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