Army Spec. Jeremy Albert polished a speck off his dress slacks with his thumb, smoothed his olive green coattails and drilled the precise motions with which he would hand off a very hard-won diploma Sunday at Metropolitan State College’s spring graduation.

The recipient? His close friend and trusted counsel and the first member of his family to graduate from college: his mother, accounting major Joyce Brand.

Albert, 22, who is recovering from a back injury sustained in combat in Iraq, crossed an ocean to surprise Brand, 45, and tell her on stage before thousands of people how proud she’s made him.

“To see her just makes me look at her as a stronger woman,” Albert said as he prepared for the on-stage moment in a back room at the Denver Convention Center. “I hope she doesn’t faint.”

She didn’t. As the announcer called Albert’s name under the glaring stage lights, Brand turned to look and broke down in tears. She managed throughout her surprise to return her son’s salute and accept her diploma and a special award Albert’s battalion issued commemorating her achievement.

Albert had told Brand that he couldn’t attend.

“I was kind of sad. This is a real ly big day for me,” Brand said. “I’m still kind of shocked. . . . This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Brand joined a class of 1,402 graduates ages 20 to 73, Metro’s largest spring graduating class ever.

It hasn’t been an easy educational road for either Albert or Brand. Both dropped out of high school.

Brand, raising three children as a single mom, decided 10 years ago that her job with a circuit-board manufacturer “pushing a button for eight hours a day” wasn’t satisfying. She wanted a degree.

About the same time, Albert decided to drop out of high school, get his GED and join the Army.

“I know I wasn’t the easiest to take care of,” he said. “But she’s always been there for me. She’s been my therapist.”

He knows it was difficult for his mom to focus on studies while he fought overseas.

Some nights, Brand said, she would open her books, start thinking of him and break into tears.

In January, Albert’s unit ran into a homemade explosive device while running reconnaissance for a sniper section in northern Iraq. The blast threw Albert into the air while his vehicle’s harness jerked him down, resulting in several ruptured disks in his back.

He joined the Warrior Transition Battalion based in Hawaii to recover.

Albert said he had never thought much about getting a college degree, until now.

“I didn’t think that I was going to be able to go to college,” he said. “If she can do it, I can do it.”

Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com