One of the best roles of a metro newspaper is report on those small, human-interest stories that make you marvel at the amazing turns life can sometimes take.

One such article was in Friday's New York Post. A hospital nurse in The Bronx meets on her ward a patient who turns out to be the father she, as a child, never knew.

An excerpt:

Assistant head nurse Wanda Rodriguez was discussing the admission of a new patient with a doctor at Calvary Hospital on Aug. 25 when she heard the patient’s name was Victor Peraza.

“The minute I heard that I froze. I said to myself ‘Oh, my God!’” — because that was the name of the father who broke up with her mother shortly after she was born 41 years ago.

 

“I needed to go to his room. I had to see him. My mom said I resembled my dad very much. I go into the room. He looks right at me and I realize: He looks like me and I look like him,” she recalled.

A remarkable story, indeed. Probably not the first time it's happened in the history of the world but an extraordinary story that lingers in the mind, nonetheless.

For me, the story had a personal resonance. Calvary is the hospice, with its wonderfully compassionate and sensitive staff, where my mother died in 2007. I never thanked that staff enough for all they did.

I also never met Nurse Rodriguez but I'm happy for her. I can't say enough about the people there.

For what they do daily for families like mine at the time, they deserve all the good that comes their way.