As daughters do on wedding days, mine took my breath away.

Last weekend, at the joyous reception following Bridget's marriage to ABC News producer Eric M. Strauss, it came time for the bride and her father to dance. Though everyone said she looked stunning, I inevitably recalled seeing her 10 years earlier - not in boundless joy but in utter heartbreak.

Tubes protruded from her mouth and her nose. A machine helped her breathe. At 24, she had very nearly lost her life to three 9 mm gunshots from a stranger.

As I entered her hospital room, just the two of us present, our eyes met in piercing sorrow and grief.

Now, on her wedding day, we looked at each other in happiness. As our dance began, about 150 relatives and friends looked on. An eight-piece band with a singer performed a song that Bridget herself had selected.

"I can see clearly now, the rain is gone ..."

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The interfaith wedding - Catholic and Jewish - took place the evening of July 7 at the W Hotel at Union Square in New York City, with a priest and a cantor presiding.