At first, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes just a tiny bit. Then she opened them again and again.
With female friends from Congress and her husband huddled around her hospital bed — just moments after President Barack Obama paid a visit Wednesday evening — Giffords opened her eyes a total of five times and reached for her husband’s hand, according to those in the room.
“We all started crying,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said by phone from Air Force One later Wednesday night. “Other than the birth of my children, it was the most incredible moment I have ever had.”
Also in the room were Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who were talking to Giffords and encouraging her to get well before she opened her eyes. Struggling to explain how Giffords had taken such a remarkable turn for the better, Wasserman Schultz said: “It was the power of friendship.”
