A birthday memory

On April 8, 2001  I sat in the operating room at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., dressed in a medical gown, camera in hand. My wife lay on the operating table as surgeons performed a C-section.  It didn't take long before they reached in a pulled out a baby girl with cheeks the size of plums. I grabbed my camera and snapped pictures, then I held her. My voice was the first she heard. I don't remember what I said, but I just kept talking to her as if she could understand me. She probably did. She still does. 

I was a father again. I had a daughter. 

Now she is nine.  She lit up my life that day and she still does.