Nurse's patient is long-lost dad

NEW YORK -- It was a bittersweet and unlikely reunion.

When Wanda Rodriguez, a nurse at a Bronx hospice, went to greet her new patient last week, she was stunned to find her estranged father, Victor Peraza.

She hadn't had contact with him for more than 40 years -- since he left her mother when she was an infant. But since that tearful reunion Wednesday, they've been drawn together even as their time together runs out.

Rodriguez has been feeding and bathing her father, who's dying of cancer. "I welcomed him with open arms," she said.

"I've always wondered where my dad had been. ... He's here now. He's terribly ill. It's not my nature to hold a grudge. ... You can't change the past, and he's begged me for forgiveness. ... I'm cherishing every moment," she said.

"When we embraced each other, it was a miraculous moment," said Peraza, 61. "I thank God for my daughter."

Rodriguez says it feels good to be with him. "When I said good night, I called him 'Daddy,' 'Papi.' I said, 'I love you.' I couldn't believe it, it sounded so natural."