My father and I looked into each other’s eyes

It took a while for him to awaken from the anesthesia. Earlier the surgeons had come out to speak with me. The surgery had involved two separate teams of surgeons – throat and esophageal – and took 16 hours in the OR. The surgery was a “success” – they had gotten all the malignancy out. Given that it was over 30 years ago, if my memory serves me on this, they also showed me proof of what they had taken out. I would have preferred to have simply taken their word for it!