ANNAPOLIS, Md. — After a storm comes a rainbow and that couldn't be more true for Trey Cummings.
Thousands of people watched as he graduated from the Naval Academy, but the one person he wished could've been there was tragically ripped from his life and had to watch from above.
"I have little goals here and there, but I feel like this goal is probably one of the biggest goals I've ever accomplished," Trey said.
He felt on top of the world graduating from the Naval Academy last month.
A Naval Academy grad overcomes tragedy
But his journey at the academy didn't start on this high note.
Four years ago, his entire world collapsed around him.
His mom and dad Michelle and Leonard Cummings had just dropped him off at school and were relaxing at the Graduate Hotel when they heard gunshots.
"She said 'Truck,' and she was on the ground bleeding, not knowing she had been shot," Leonard said.
Michelle was hit with a stray bullet and tragically died.
Leonard can only sum up that night with one word - horrible.
"That night, I did three of the hardest things that I ever had to do in life. Number one, was trying to save my wife's life. The second thing was to call my daughter, who had just gotten home from a girls trip. And the third thing was to go up on the Naval Academy grounds where we had just dropped Trey off…and tell him."
Trey thought back to that night.
"I cried on the floor like a big baby cause once he told me, it was something that I thought was impossible," he told WMAR 2 News, "That's my hero. She's someone I looked up to, someone I actually still look up to."
Through his grief, he didn't know if he was going to return to school.
But in a show of great strength he decided to finish what he started, as a student and athlete on the field.
It took a village.
"All the way from the janitors, to my advisers, to some of my teachers. They took care of me while I was there and I'm blessed to have those people in my circle and feel the love from them."
Even though his mom could no longer be there with him, Trey found signs of her through the past four years.
"Before it was raining and right after there was a big bright rainbow and I remember it vividly because I was with my aunt and she was like 'Look at that big rainbow, that's Michelle looking at us'. So every time I see a rainbow in Annapolis Maryland I always think of my mom."
Leonard couldn't have felt prouder watching his son graduate and he knows Michelle would've felt the same.
"I know she's just elated up there in heaven looking down on us about this young man right here it's just a moment you can't explain."
Trey hopes others guys can learn something from his life.
"I want to motivate young guys to just go to the academy, do whatever they want, stick to their dreams and live their lives."
Trey will be heading to the USS Tortuga in Norfolk Virginia as a Surface Warfare Officer.
He says moving forward he'll do every thing through his mom, always keeping her in his thoughts.
