US nurse discovers terminal cancer patient is her long-lost father

NEW YORK - In a remarkable twist of fate, a dying cancer patient reunited with his daughter he hadn’t seen in 41 years at the Bronx hospice where she is a nurse.

Wanda Rodriguez, a nurse at Calvary Hospital, met her long-lost father, Victor Peraza, who left the family when she was an infant.

“I got nervous, very anxious, and I said, ‘Oh my God that’s my father’s name … what chance is there it’s my dad?’” the New York Daily News quoted Rodriguez as saying.

“It was a miracle,” Peraza said, as his newfound child sat beside him.

“When you have on one hand dealing with a terminal affliction and on the other you have happiness, you meet someone you always wanted to meet, it’s a hard pill to swallow,” said Peraza.

“I want to jump for joy for her presence, that she accepts me,” he added.

For her whole life, a tearful Rodriguez said, “I always dreamed of saying ‘Daddy’ to someone … I never got to pick out a Father’s Day card.”

After Rodriguez heard the new patient’s name she his room to welcome him to the hospital, and couldn’t stop herself from asking him if he had any children.

“I said, ‘I have Gina and Wanda, they’re grown now,’” Peraza recalled.

“When he said my name I lost it,” said Rodriguez

Then she told him, “I’m Wanda, I’m your daughter.” (ANI)