'Miracle' Reunion: New York Nurse 'Blessed' to Find, Forgive Absent Father

Wanda Rodriguez feels "blessed" after long-lost dad turns up in her hospital.

ByABC News via logo
September 3, 2010, 1:54 PM

Sept. 6, 2010#151; -- The nurse whose jaw-dropping discovery that her long-lost father was one of her patients said she has forgiven him for a lifetime of hurt in hopes of filling his last days with love.

Wanda Rodriguez had never met her father, Victor Peraza, when he showed up as a terminally ill cancer patient at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx where she works as a head nurse.

After an initial tear-filled greeting and an awkward hug, their relationship has blossomed. Rodriguez has filled his hospital room with pictures of his family and sits with Peraza before and after her shifts and during breaks.

"We're not going to dwell on the past because we love him," Rodriguez told "Good Morning America." "We're just going to enjoy the time we have together."

Born in the Bronx, Rodriguez said her parents separated while she was still an infant. She never heard from her father again.

While she has spoken to Peraza about his decision to walk out on his family, Rodriguez insists it's not a thorn in their newly formed relationship.

"It's not going to change the past. It's not going to change what happened," she said, remaining painfully cognizant that her father entered the hospital with end-stage cancer. "I feel there's closure. It's just a beautiful thing. I feel blessed."

Her hopes for her father are that he lives to see his 61st birthday on Sept. 12 and that when he does succumb to cancer that it takes him peacefully.

"He said, 'I'm so proud of you and I'm lucky to be your dad,'" she said.

Rodriguez, 41, was working her usual late shift last month when she overheard a doctor talking on the phone about a new admission. The patient's name sounded familiar.

"I froze for a second," Rodriguez said. "That's my father's name."

She walked over to the patient's room.

"I thought if he's my complexion, if he has green eyes, he could be my dad," she recalled. "I go in and I look at him and he looks right at me. He's dark and he has light eyes. I thought, "Oh my god, I think this is him."

She welcomed him to Calvary and asked if he was comfortable. Then she asked if he had children. "Yes," she recalled him saying, "but my children are grown. I have a daughter named Gina and a daughter named Wanda."

An Emotional Reunion for a Father and Daughter Separated for 41 Years

Rodriguez said she grew emotional and bolted out of the room. "I couldn't help myself," she said. "I was in shock. I thought I was going to faint. I couldn't believe it."

In the corridor, she was comforted by a physician. "That's my father," she cried. "I haven't seen him in 41 years."

A hospital supervisor immediately wanted to move Peraza, 60, to another floor because of the potential conflict of interest. "I said, 'No, you can't do that,'" Rodriguez told her supervisor. "Not yet."

She walked back to the room.

"Hi, I'm Wanda," she told the new patient. "I'm your daughter. He said, 'I know you're my daughter.' I think he knew like I knew. When we looked at each other, we knew instantly."

Peraza, reached by phone at the hospital, said: "Miracles do happen and seeing my daughter again was one of them."

On the night of their reunion, Rodriguez said, there was awkward silence when she asked where he had been all these years. But the answer to the question didn't really matter now, she said. "I held his hand and then I was holding him and hugging him," she said. "It was a magic moment, and he started singing 'This magic moment.'"

She told him about her husband and the three grandchildren he never met.

"Then he asked for forgiveness," Rodriguez recalled. "He said, 'I know I wasn't a good father. I regret the mistakes I made. I said, 'I forgive you. Let's not talk about that now. I want to enjoy this time."

That night, a Wednesday, she shaved and washed her father.

"I remember leaving and saying, 'Goodnight daddy, I love you,'" Rodriguez said, breaking down. "It was so beautiful because I always dreamed of saying that. He said, 'I love you, too.'"