His bloodshot eyes brimmed with sudden tears. The stress lines that creased his unshaven face relaxed for a brief instant, the muscles twisting in a rare expression of an uncommon emotion.
Sheer joy.
"The operation went well," I had smiled. With a thrill of surprise and delight, I realized those simple words I had just uttered unleashed a flood of feeling.
And in that instant, I saw disappear, from a relieved father's face, the collective agony and angst of many thousand parents, all caring for children shadowed by the spectre of congenital heart disease.
I saw a dream come alive.
